A collection of Jewish sheet music I acquired recently tells the horrific tale of life under the weight of the Nazi terror in Theresienstadt. Theresienstadt, the notorious Nazi concentration camp, served also as part of an elaborate Nazi deception, used as propaganda to create an illusion that the Jews were not being sent to the death camps but rather “resettled.” While the killing camps were in operation, the publicly stated purpose of the Jews being rounded up and sent east was “resettlement in the east.”
In June 1944, after world pressure, the International Red Cross was allowed to visit the camp to determine its conditions. The Germans made efforts to “beautify” the camp, and the Jewish prisoners were allowed to stage social and cultural events for visiting dignitaries. Once the visitors left, the deportations and horrific conditions resumed.
For a time, cultural life at Theresienstadt was allowed to develop. Authors, scholars, musicians and Yiddish theatre actors gave performances. A lending library also existed. Despite 90 percent of the Jews that went through Theresienstadt not surviving the war, those that were kept alive attempted to keep Jewish culture and a semblance of normalcy in whatever forms possible.
The sheet music I acquired bears ownership stamps of the Theresienstadt Ghetto Library. Given the context, the music – mostly cantorial and Yiddish theatre titles from New York – are astonishing. One such is “Hatikvah,” featuring a portrait of Theodore Herzl, whose daughter was murdered in Theresienstadt. Another is titled “Jerusalem,” while another is an elegy for the victims of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire.
