Current Affairs Czech premiere of Song of Terezin marks Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked around Europe on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Here in Prague the day has been marked by the country's first ever performance of the Song of Terezin, an oratorio written by the German-American composer Franz Waxman which is based on poems written by children imprisoned at the Terezin ghetto (known in German as Theresienstadt). The performance, co-sponsored by Czech and Austrian agencies, took place on Tuesday afternoon at the State Opera. A day before the premiere I spoke to Tomas Jelinek, the chairman of Prague's Jewish Community, and began by asking him how the idea of putting on the first Czech performance of the Song of Terezin had come about.
The oratorio
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