By way of introduction

I am a musician, arts advocate, linguaphile, graduate student, lover of books and culture.  You can read more about me on my profile.

The photo you see posted as my profile picture is from a performance of  "Brundibar", a children's opera written by the Czech composer Hans Krasa (1899-1944).  The opera was first performed secretly in 1942 in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia (called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) at the Vinohrady Jewish Boys' Orphanage.  The composer had previously been deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin) on the first transport in November 1941; Theresienstadt was a transit camp and labor camp.  The Nazis referred to it as a ghetto and even a resort or spa town.  By July 1943, all of the children from the orphanage had also been sent to the ghetto.  "Brundibar" received its first performance in Theresienstadt in September 1943.  It was performed 55 times, including a performance for the International Red Cross Committee during a visit in June 1944.  In October 1944, Krasa was deported to Auschwitz and murdered.  Of the 15,000 children who were interned at Theresienstadt, approximately 100 survived.

I will be writing more about this topic in later posts.  In the meantime, you can find more information about Theresienstadt at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here.  More information about Krasa and other composers interned there can be found here.  One word of caution:  although much has been written about and can be found on the Web regarding Theresienstadt, not all of it is accurate.  It is important to bear in mind that the ghetto was not an artists' colony but was, in fact, a transit/labor camp with intolerable and inhumane conditions.

I hope readers who love the arts and culture will find my humble blog interesting despite its imperfections.  In addition to writing about the topic of this post, I also will be writing about contemporary culture and society.

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