 "The One Left Behind"
Drawing by Fritz LedererThen…
“We went
to see “The Kiss” yesterday. Even though the singing is only
accompanied by a piano and there are no costumes or props,
the impression in the National Theatre couldn’t be more grand.”
--From
the Terezin diary of Helga Weissova-Hoskova
“I had
a ticket for Gideon Klein’s piano solo this afternoon. He
played Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin…I was captivated.”
--From
the Terezin diary of Ruth Brosslerova
“Today
the milk froze in the pot. The cold is very dangerous. The
children do not undress, and so the lice multiply in the children’s
dormitory. Today there was the premiere of “The Bartered Bride.”
It was the best piece which I have seen in the Ghetto.”
--From
the Terezin diary of Egon Redlich
“October
16, 1944
Theresienstadt
was, and for me still is a school of form. Earlier, and in
other places, the burden and the compelling force of material
life were not so noticeable because they were repressed by
comfort, this magician of civilization; in those places it
was easy to create beautiful form. Here, where one has to
overcome matter through form just to get through another day
and where everything of an artistic nature is in total opposition
to the whole environment; this place is the true master-school
(in Schiller's sense), who sees the secret of a work of art
to be the destruction of substance/matter by form -- which
is presumably the mission of the human being in general --
not only the aesthetic human being but the ethical one as
well.
I have
written quite a bit of new music in Theresienstadt, mostly
to satisfy the needs and wishes of conductors, directors,
pianists and singers as well as the demands of organizing
and occupying my leisure time in the ghetto. It seems pointless
to me to count them all up, just as there is no point in stressing
that it was impossible to play the piano in Theresienstadt
as long as there were no instruments. Future generations also
will not be interested in hearing about the appreciable lack
of manuscript paper. The only thing worth emphasizing is that
Theresienstadt has not hampered my musical activity, but has
actually encouraged and supported it. In no way have we merely
sat lamenting by the rivers of Babylon; our cultural will
has been adequately proportional to our will to live. And,
I am convinced that anyone who is striving to wrest form out
of resistant matter, both in life and in art, will agree with
me.”
--
From the final entry of Viktor Ullmann’s journal "The
Strange Passenger"
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