Focused on bringing the legacy of the Holocaust to the next generation, the 2010 Hope for Humanity Dinner on November 11 at the Dallas Fairmont Hotel will offer a program that honors the memory of those whose lives ended during the Holocaust, but whose memory endures through their artistic creations. Further, a special presentation honoring our Holocaust Survivors will be a focal point of the evening. Our featured entertainment includes performances by the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas in both a poetry reading of Pavel Friedmann’s The Butterfly and a performance of select scenes from Hans Krása’s opera Brundibár, presented in conjunction with the University of Texas at San Antonio Lyric Theater. Here’s an overview of the evening’s events:
2010 Hope for Humanity Dinner
L’dor V’dor (from Generation to Generation)
For inspiring background and important information about our entertainment program please watch the CBS 60 Minutes video of child survivors of Terezin: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/23/60minutes/main2508458.shtml
Evening Program: Overview
Focused on bringing the legacy of the Holocaust to the next generation, the 2010 Hope for Humanity Dinner will offer a program that honors the memory of those whose lives ended during the Holocaust, but whose memory endures through their artistic creations. Further, a special presentation honoring our Holocaust Survivors will be a focal point of the evening. Our featured entertainment includes performances by the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas in both a poetry reading of Pavel Friedmann’s The Butterfly and a performance of select scenes from Hans Krása’s opera Brundibár, presented in conjunction with the University of Texas at San Antonio Lyric Theater. Our closing act will include musician and SMU Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, José Bowen, Ph.D., performing an inspired, modern variation of the Hebrew classic L’dor V’dor. Two brief video presentations will also be shown: an informational video about the Museum and an inspiring tribute to this year’s honoree, Roger Staubach.
The evening’s entertainment spotlights the amazing talent of the artists and intellectuals of the Terezin Ghetto who, being aware that fate was likely to bring them to the gas chambers, and while suffering the ghastly conditions of the Terezin Ghetto and grisly treatment by the Nazis, rose above this cruel reality to create a repertoire of artistic achievement still performed, published and celebrated today. These exceptional minds deserve to be remembered; for through their suffering remains a legacy of brilliance and a testament to the human condition.
*Read journal entries of Terezin prisoners. Be sure to read Part 2 for demonstration of how music and art fed the soul of the victims:
http://www.interdisciplinary.neu.edu/terezin/place/words.html
The Terezin Concentration Camp (also known as Theresienstadt) of the Czech Rebulic existed as a contrast of public display and private reality. Publically, Terezin was presented as a “model camp” or a “resort” and deemed “Hilter’s gift to the Jews.” Privately however, victims of Terezin toiled in the most deplorable conditions of filth and disease where extermination was not merely a threat but a certainty.
While exact numbers vary, approximately 150,000 Jews entered through the gates of Terezin. Only about ten percent survived. Those who did not die of illness or starvation were transported to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The fate of children at Terezin was even more gruesome: less than 100 of the 15,000 children imprisoned at Terezin lived to tell their story. None of the survivors were under the age of 15.
Recommended Reading:
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Poetry and art by the children
imprisoned in Terezin
$20
The DHM/CET offers I Never Saw Another Butterfly and a variety of other books about the Holocaust, many not available online or in bookstores. Please see our list of current titles and how-to-order information.
Further Reading:
(*The DHM/CET offers links to websites with information for further reading about subject matter related to the entertainment program described herein. The content on the web pages was not prepared by the DHM/CET. The DHM/CET is not responsible for errors and/or conflicting information on the web pages.)
*Read the history of the Terezin Concentration Camp and get statistical information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp
*Read journal entries of Terezin prisoners. Be sure to read Part 2 for demonstration of how music and art fed the soul of the victims:
http://www.interdisciplinary.neu.edu/terezin/place/words.html
*Learn more about Terezin, including art and music information:
http://www.shoaheducation.com/terezin.html
*View a list of musical artists and their accomplishments:
http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/theresienstadt/
*A “must read”: the story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, victim of Terezin who nurtured the children of Terezin through art and poetic expression:
http://art-education.concordia.ca/facultystaff/pdfs/A%20Woman%20of%20Valor,%20David%20Pariser.pdf
*Learn the inspiring true story of Ilse Weber, poet and nurse-mother to the children of Terezin who cared for them in life and volunteered to die with them in the gas chambers of Auschwitz so that they would not die alone and afraid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_Weber
*Watch a performance of Ilse Weber’s “Wiegala” lullaby reportedly sung by Weber to the children of Terezin as Weber and the children, including her own son, awaited their deaths in the gas chambers of Auschwitz:
Listen to a performance of Ilse Weber’s “Ich wander durch Theresienstadt” (I wander through Theresienstadt), music featured in the DHM/CET video presentation:
http://www.boosey.com/cr/sample_detail/Weber-Ich-wandre-durch-Theresienstadt/12550
*Weblinks to a variety of artwork from Terezin:
http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/arts/ARTVICTI.HTM
http://holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=205&searchtype=simple&searchtopic=5&id=7
Evening Program: Entertainment in detail
Act I: Honor and Remembrance
“The Butterfly”
http://www.shoaheducation.com/butterfly.html
A poem by Pavel Friedmann,
Poet and Prisoner of Terezin who perished at Auschwitz
About the poetry and the poet
The struggles of the internal versus the external are revealed through the creativity and imaginations of the children who perished during the Holocaust. Through their art, music and poetry, these children shared with us not only their experiences but also the beauty of their souls. In doing so, they have left to us a most precious gift: the miracle of how children can change the world.
Through his poem, The Butterfly, Pavel Friedmann gave us an inside glimpse of the world where he lived, how that world affected him and his thoughts about his own future. He recalls beauty that he is no longer able to see; he believes that the butterfly left Terezin, left the world, taking its beauty with it, kissing the world good-bye as if it no longer could bear what life had become. He understands the gravity of his situation and perhaps wishes for it to be over. Pavel Friedmann composed this poem just seven weeks into his 29-month imprisonment at Terezin. He was a victim of Auschwitz on September 29, 1944.
If Pavel Friedmann had survived what would his life be now? Would he have located relatives, rebuilt his life, and evolved into the full promise of his talents and abilities? We will never know for sure those answers, but we can be certain that his legacy—and the legacy of all victims and survivors—will be preserved and handed down to the next generation.
Read the poem, “The Butterfly”, by Pavel Friedman:
http://www.shoaheducation.com/butterfly.html
Pavel Friedmann was born in Prague on January 7, 1921. He was deported to Terezin on April 26, 1942 and later to Auschwitz, where he died on September 29, 1944.
Recommended Reading:
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
Poetry and art by the children
imprisoned in Terezin
$20
The DHM/CET offers I Never Saw Another Butterfly and a variety of other books about the Holocaust, many not available online or in bookstores. Please see our list of current titles and how-to-order information.
Act II: Upstanders
Select scenes from
Brundibár, an Opera for Children
By Hans Krása
A performance by the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas in conjunction with the Lyric Theater of the University of Texas at San Antonio
“Music meant such a lot for us because we felt like human beings again. We didn’t feel like animals. You could cry, you could open your heart…. For moments to forget, for half an hour to forget. We could cry there, we could be happy there. We could remember and we could hope——And all of us tried to take part. It was not so easy.”—Zuzana Podmelova, Terezin prisoner
Several of the original cast survived Terezin.
Their story can be found at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/23/60minutes/main2508458.shtml
About the Brundibar Opera
The opera Brundibár was written by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása in 1938. In 1942, he was deported to Terezín (or Theresienstadt), a ghetto created by the Nazis to amass European Jews in one location prior to transportation to the East for the “final solution.” In Terezín, Krása’s opera, Brundibár, was performed more than 50 times by children and musicians from the ghetto, including performances for Hilter. During the rehearsals and performances, as the transports to the East were in progress, there was a constant stream of new performers, replacing the previous performers who were being shipped to Auschwitz for extermination.
The opera itself is a story about friendship, good winning over evil and standing up to bullies. The final chorus says it best: “Victory spectacular, Goodbye to Brundibár, Never afraid of him, battle won, war is done, now we are number one. Our song is strong and clear, our voices without fear, what a phenomenon. Whoever loves justice and will defend it and is not afraid is our friend and may play with us”.
What is particularly significant and moving is the historical context in which it was originally performed—in a concentration camp, under the noses of the Nazis, who either were not listening or did not see the significance of the opera’s lyrics. The opera speaks to today’s children as well. It shows that if we pull together, we can overcome even the meanest bully.
Of course we children recognized the absurdity of this spectacle…but we also loved performing Brundibár. When you are making music, you are no longer a prisoner. You are free for a time.”—Paul Aron Sandfort (born Paul Rabinowitsch): Survivor of the Terezín ghetto, performed Brundibár in Terezin.
The opera exemplifies the mission of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance and demonstrates the need—then and now—for UPSTANDERS. Learn more about becoming an UPSTANDER at:
(Summary content provided in part by http://www.brundibar.ca/info.html)
Watch the CBS 60 Minutes video of child survivors of Terezin: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/23/60minutes/main2508458.shtml
*Review a study guide to Brundibar:
Act III: Legacy
Performance of
“L’dor V’dor”
A performance by José Bowen, Ph.D., Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, SMU
accompanied by Keris Patterson and Seth Ordiway of SMU
Arrangement for piano provided by The Josh Nelson Project
*Read more about José Bowen, Ph.D.:
*Read more about The Josh Nelson Project:
http://joshnelsonproject.com/music/
About L’dor V’dor
Storytelling is one of humanity’s most cherished methods of teaching. Parents, children, grandparents, nurses, doctors, rabbis, priests and the like revel in relaying a story to those we nurture, to those we guide, to those we hold most dear. We are inspired by stories throughout life—cradle-to-grave sharing and receiving what has gone before us in order to be closer to our ancestors, to make wiser choices in the future, to leave the world a little better than we found it. The theme of our evening, L’dor V’dor, translates to “from generation to generation.” For our purposes, it means we are offering a legacy of learning about the Holocaust through the art, music and stories of those who endured it. By giving this “gift” to each subsequent generation, we are not only educating the world but also improving it. The music of L’dor V’dor has survived many generations, and on November 11th it shall survive one more.
L’dor V’dor
We are gifts and we are blessings, we are history in song
We are hope and we are healing, we are learning to be strong
We are words and we are stories, we are pictures of the past
We are carriers of wisdom, not the first and not the last
L’dor vador nagid godlecha
(From generation to generation, we will tell of Your greatness)
L’dor vador… we protect this chain
From generation to generation
L’dor vador, these lips will praise Your name
Looking back on the journey that we carry in our heart
From the shadow of the mountain to the waters that would part
We are blessed and we are holy, we are children of Your way
And the words that bring us meaning, we will have the strength to say
L’dor vador…
