Last night I went to see the opera The Emperor of Atlantis and the play beforehand that illustrated the making of it. The opera was composed in German concentration camp that was used as a model camp to deceive the Red Cross and was used for cultural propaganda purposes. The opera was never was performed (as it subtly made fun of the Nazis and fascism) and the composer and librettist were soon killed. But, somehow the score made it out of the camp and surfaced in the mid 1970s. Anyway, it was powerful and rather eerie opera, as it rendered those that died a voice.
A quote from the composer Victor Ullman, on discussing his own artistic growth in the camp: However, it must be emphasized that Theresienstadt has served to enhance, not to impede, my musical activities, that by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, and that our endeavor with respect to the Arts was commensurate with our will to live. And I am convinced that all those who, in life and in art, were fighting to force form upon resisting matter, will agree with me.
For humanity to survive, art was necessary. In Theresienstadt, the necessity to create and consume art was the very act of survival.
A quote from the composer Victor Ullman, on discussing his own artistic growth in the camp: However, it must be emphasized that Theresienstadt has served to enhance, not to impede, my musical activities, that by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, and that our endeavor with respect to the Arts was commensurate with our will to live. And I am convinced that all those who, in life and in art, were fighting to force form upon resisting matter, will agree with me.
For humanity to survive, art was necessary. In Theresienstadt, the necessity to create and consume art was the very act of survival.