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Musicians

Silenced Voices: A Tribute to the Forgotten Composers of the Holocaust

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

As the Nazi regime implemented its vicious policies of racial and cultural purification, a generation of Czech Jewish composers found themselves at the forefront of the Second World War's most tragic consequences. The Brandeis University's upcoming five-week tribute, "Silenced Voices: Music Banned by the Nazis," seeks to revive the legacy of Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, and Viktor Ullman, four talented musicians who lost their lives in the Holocaust. The ambitious project, sponsored by the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, features a comprehensive exhibit documenting the Nazi black-listing of jazz and avant-garde music, as well as a free concert series showcasing the artistic genius of the silenced composers.

Key Takeaways:

  • The "Silenced Voices" tribute is a five-week celebration of the musical legacy of Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, and Viktor Ullman, four Czech Jewish composers who perished in the Holocaust.
  • The program focuses on compositions written during the Terezin interment, a "model" concentration camp used to deceive the rest of the world about the true nature of the Nazis' "final solution."
  • The Terezin Chamber Music Foundation, co-sponsor of "Silenced Voices," is dedicated to reviving music written by composers who perished in the Holocaust, with a special emphasis on the works of Haas, Klein, Krasa, and Ullman.
  • The exhibit component of "Silenced Voices" includes a reconstruction of the Dusseldorf "Entartete Musik Exhibit," a grand-scale Nazi propaganda campaign that featured jazz and avant-garde musicians, particularly Jewish composers, as having a "degenerate" impact on society.
  • The concert series features artists such as the Hawthorne String Quartet, members of the BSO, and the Longy Chamber Singers, performing music of composers who fled Nazi persecution or were imprisoned in Terezin.
  • The tribute highlights the fortitude of the creative spirit against all odds, as expressed by Mark Ludwig, founder of the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation: "`Silenced Voices' explores the artistic genius, political manipulation, and censorship of the so-called degenerate music."

Statistics:

  • 4 composers lost their lives in the Holocaust: Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krasa, and Viktor Ullman.
  • 5-week celebration of the musical legacy of the silenced composers at Brandeis University.
  • 7 concert events, including performances by the Hawthorne String Quartet, members of the BSO, and the Longy Chamber Singers.
  • 1 exhibition, a reconstruction of the Dusseldorf "Entartete Musik Exhibit," showcasing Nazi propaganda against jazz and avant-garde music.
  • 4 compositions by the silenced composers will be performed during the tribute: Haas's "String Quartet No. 2," Klein's "Piano Sonata," Krasa's "Passacaglia for String Orchestra," and Ullman's "A Child of Our Time."

Sources:

  • Blumenthal, Barbara. "Exploring the genius of 'degenerate' music." Brandeis University, no date.
  • The Terezin Chamber Music Foundation. No date.
  • "Silenced Voices: Music Banned by the Nazis." Brandeis University, no date.

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