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Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
character of these events, the surviving sources are fragmentary and often
5
incomplete.
A significant role in the organisation of these activities was also played
by local branches of the Jewish Religious Community in Protectorate
towns, above all in Prague, which, for example, initiated the establishment
of a music school. This institution provided a base for musicians affected by
repressive measures and enabled them not only to teach but also to contin-
ue their artistic work. Within this circle of activities also belongs the prepa-
ration and first performance of the children’s opera Brundibár in the au-
tumn of 1942. 6
By contrast, the situation in Germany had taken a different turn.
There, the Kulturbund deutscher Juden (Cultural Association of German
Jews), founded in 1933, organised concerts, theatre performances, and other
7
cultural activities for Jewish audiences. In the Czech environment, howev-
er, no comparable institution emerged. One of the reasons was the relative-
ly short interval between the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohe-
mia and Moravia in March 1939 and the introduction of strict restrictions
against the Jewish population, including the prohibition of Jewish organ-
isations in the second half of 1941. From this period onwards, many musi-
cians were deported to Theresienstadt.
The social and cultural bonds that had developed during this earli-
er period played an important role once transferred to the Theresienstadt
ghetto. The ghetto community itself functioned on the basis of certain in-
ternal categorisations. One of the key factors determining prisoners’ sta-
tus – at least until the large deportations of the autumn of 1944 – was eth-
nic affiliation. Since the younger Czech Jews constituted the cultural and
social elite of Theresienstadt, this category also significantly shaped the
character of the ghetto’s cultural life.

5 On the cultural and social life of Jews in Prague in 1939–1941, see the personal tes-
timonies of Holocaust survivors. See also: Milan Kuna, Dvakrát zrozený. život a
dílo Karla Reinera [Twice Born: The Life and Work of Karel Reiner] (Prague: H&H,
1999), 115–41.
6 Brundibár is a children’s opera in two acts by Hans Krasa, with a libretto by Adolf
Hoffmeister. The opera was first performed by children from the Jewish orphanage
in Prague sometime around late 1942 or early 1943. In 1943, the child actors were de-
ported to Theresienstadt, where the opera was staged again. The performances be-
came very popular and were given approximately 55 times between 1943 and 1944.
7 On the Kulturbund deutscher Juden, see: Fred K. Prieberg, Musik im NS-Staat (Köln:
Dittrich Verlag, 2000), 81–105.

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