Karel Berman

Karel Berman's story is one of extraordinary resilience and artistic defiance. Imprisoned at Terezín in 1941, the young Czech bass refused to let the Nazi camp silence him — conducting choirs, directing operas, premiering new works, and composing music that bore witness to the horror around him. He survived Auschwitz, Kaufering, typhus, and a death march, returning after the war to build one of the most distinguished operatic careers in post-war Czechoslovakia. Across 45 years, he performed over 120 roles in some 3,500 opera performances and gave more than 600 recitals. But it is perhaps his piano suite 1938–1943 Reminiscences — a searing musical memoir of occupation, genocide, survival and loss — that most powerfully distils what he lived through, and why his story still demands to be heard.

Karel Berman was born on 14 April 1919 in Jindřichův Hradec, a town in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. He received his first training in music theory and piano from his father, before studying piano privately. In 1938, he entered the Prague Conservatory to study singing. His studies were interrupted in 1940 by the Nazi invasion and he was arrested and released the same year. He began conducting and performing under a pseudonym, but, in 1941, he was re-arrested and imprisoned in Terezín where he quickly became one of the most active musicians.

He conducted the girls' chorus, gave several solo recitals as both bass singer and pianist, and directed and sang in many opera performances, including Smetana's The Bartered Bride (performing the role of Kecal in 25 performances) and The Kiss, as well as Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. He also conducted one performance of Vilém Blodek's one-act comic opera In the Well. He was featured as a soloist in the renowned performance of Verdi's Requiem under conductor Rafael Schächter. He championed and performed the works of several other Terezín composers, including premiering Pavel Haas' Four Songs on Chinese Poetry with Schächter. An extant programme from a concert on 22 June 1944 includes works by Beethoven and Dvořák alongside the Haas songs — a work Berman continued regularly to include in his post-war programmes.

Berman also composed several works, including Three Songs for high voice and piano, a song cycle for bass voice and piano (Poupata or "Flower Buds") and a three-movement piano suite titled Terezín. The movements were titled Terezín, Terror and Alone. He originally envisioned these two suites to be performed together with alternating instrumentation. Some of his works were performed in Viktor Ullmann's Studio für neue Musik concerts and Ullmann is said to have described Berman as an 'eloquent, courageous, all-round talented artist, singer, composer, conductor'.

The role of Death in Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis was written for Berman, but he was sent to Auschwitz on September 28, 1944. (The opera was rehearsed but never performed as the Nazis realized its message and sent many of the involved musicians to the gas chambers in Auschwitz on October 16). Berman managed to escape the same fate by convincing Josef Mengele that he was a worker, not an artist.

Berman was transferred to Kaufering, a sub-camp of Dachau, where he survived typhus and a death march. He was liberated in May 1945. He later wrote, "And so, I survived concentration camps, compared to which the terrors of hell are just about like lemonade compared to Lysol. And that only through strong will, powerful will, and the infinite desire to meet my parents and my brother. On May 24, 1945, at 9:30 am, we crossed the border of free Czechoslovakia. From the whole family on my father's and mother's side, I met only one of my mother's brothers, his wife and my mother's niece. All the others perished, Lord knows where and how. I am beginning a new life!"

After the war, he continued his studies at the Prague Conservatory, graduating in 1946 as a singer and stage director. In 1953, he became a member of the Prague National Theater. He was active as a performer and director in opera houses around the world — including throughout Europe and Japan — directing more than 70 operas, until his death on August 11, 1995 at the age of 76. He was one of the leading singers in the Prague National Theater (known primarily for his portrayal of Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni), taught at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Musical Arts and was well-known for his operatic stage directing, conducting and composition. In 45 years, he sang over 120 operatic roles in roughly 3,500 performances as well as over 600 recitals. Some short recordings of his performances can be found on YouTube.

In 1994, he was awarded the Italia Prize and in 1995, received the Vienna Fidelio Medal. He was married three times and had one daughter, Jana Bermanova, a successful Czech actress. Karel Berman sang Pavel Haas' Four Songs for the last time at the Terezín liberation commemoration on May 2, 1995.

In 1957, he re-worked his piano suite Terezín into 1938–1943 Reminiscences, renaming the three previous movements and adding an additional five movements. "Terror" was retitled "Auschwitz – Corpse Factory", "Alone" became "May 24, 1945 – Alone Alone" and "Terezín" was renamed "March 15, 1939 – Occupation".

Berman's portrayal of his life is particularly poignant in this suite. The first movement, Youth, is light and carefree. Family-Home gives a feeling of warmth and safety. In the third movement, March 15, 1939 – Occupation, the lyrical melody from Family-Home is suddenly interrupted by harsh, almost ugly gestures or sounds that suggest marching or yelling. Berman intertwines these contrasting motives or ideas together throughout the movement. At one point, he indicates "Tempo of a German March" underscoring the arrival of soldiers and the takeover of the town. The fourth movement, Factory-German feels very cold and unsettling; the music is very mechanical. In Auschwitz-Corpse Factory, Berman combines sadness with anger and uses more of the chaotic motives reminiscent of the previous movement. The sixth movement, Typhus in Kauffering, is very disjunct, built from a small, obsessive motive that repeats and transforms, creating a sense of inescapability and looming horror. In May 24, 1945 Alone-Alone, Berman perfectly captures this hollow feeling of, "Yes, I have survived, but now what?" This movement moves attaca or continuously into the final movement entitled New Life where fragments of earlier motives reappear, suggesting a sense of renewal, hope and joy, tempered by an enduring sense of loss and remembrance for those who did not survive.

Hannah Creviston, 2026