Page 56 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung. While the former belongs to the
group of lost Theresienstadt works, the latter has in recent decades become
one of the most frequently performed compositions to have originated in
15
the ghetto. Most of the participants in these cultural activities were de-
ported to Auschwitz in September and October 1944. After the deporta-
tions, musical life in the ghetto continued in some form, but never again
reached its earlier intensity.
The establishment and functioning of Freizeitgestaltung fit neatly with
the ideological aims of German propaganda. An opportunity for its suita-
ble exploitation arose in the second half of 1943 with the transport of 450
Danish Jews (5 October 1943). Due to complicated political negotiations,
these prisoners were granted several exceptions, including the fact that they
were not sent to extermination camps. Their presence in Terezín attract-
ed the attention of the international public. Immediately after their arriv-
al, the Danish government requested permission for a visit by the Danish
Red Cross. Adolf Eichmann granted the exception, and at the instigation
of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Red Cross,
the SS launched the above-mentioned Stadtverschönerung project. In the
spring of 1944, once the ghetto had been prepared, Himmler authorised
a visit to Terezín and to one of the labour camps (probably the so-called
“family camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau). The visit of the International Red
Cross commission, together with representatives of Denmark and Sweden,
took place on 23 June 1944. The delegation was guided primarily through
the reconstructed Danish quarters, and some of the Danish prisoners were
forced to participate in the filming of the propaganda movie by Gerron and
Pečený: Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungs-
gebiet [Theresienstadt: A Documentary from the Jewish Settlement Area].
Edited only in the final days of the war in spring 1945, the film was never
presented to the wider public.
The Theresienstadt ghetto also has links to the history of the First
Czechoslovak Republic. It became the last site where Czech and Ger-
man cultures intertwined. Their interaction was not without tension and
15 The opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung [The Emperor of At-
lantis or the Refusal of Death], composed by Viktor Ullmann to a libretto by Pe-
ter Kien, was not performed in the Terezín ghetto. Its world premiere was given by
the Netherlands Opera at the Bellevue Centre in Amsterdam on 16 December 1975
(cond. Kerry Woodward). It was subsequently presented in San Francisco (1977), Is-
rael (1978), and England (1979). Further productions followed in Stuttgart (February
1985) and at the Wiener Kammeroper (September 1987, dir. George Tabori), the lat-
ter attracting significant public attention.

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