CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST

"Music on the Brink of Destruction", a special programme at the Wigmore Hall, London, featuring  composers caught up in the  Ho...

Pavel and Hugo Haas Pavel Haas and Hugo Haas : brothers from Brno who led very different lives.   Pavel, the composer, was incarcerated...

From Alice Sommer Herz's Facebook page: "On behalf of Alice’s family, we thank everyone for all the words of affection and ...

Alice Herz-Sommer, aged 110, died in hospital this morning. She was the world's oldest Holocaust survivor, the world's oldest pi...

Alice Herz-Sommer is 110 years old today. Anyone reaching 110 is special but Alice has defied more odds than most. Born in Prague in 1903...

"Hatred eats the soul of the hater, not that of the hater" - Alice Herz Sommer, who will be 109 in November. She survived Theresi...

That's Hans Krása (1899-1944). The occasion this photo was taken? It's a still from the Nazi propaganda film glorifying Theresiensta...

A dictator stands on a balcony addressing the masses. "We are a great country, we need space to live" The crowds roar in hysteric...

Two remarkable films about living under the Nazis on BBC4 TV. First Surviving Hitler: a Love Story . This is big news, as it's making i...

Is this an ordinary family making music? Look closely. Dad and the little girl are wearing  yellow stars. This is a drawing from Terezin The...

These are the children of Theresienstadt, or Terezin (depends whether you come from east or west). They're singing cheerfully but  thos...

Today marks the liberation of Auschwitz, but Holocaust Day commemorates all people destroyed in that madness, and by extension, those destro...

Ein kahles Mädchen. Heckenblaß entlaubt. Sie steht am Weg, ich gehe weit vorbei. So stehen sie alle Reih' an Reih' ...

Why would people write and perform music in a concentration camp ? As Viktor Ullmann, who was at Terezin but was murdered at Auschwitz, wrot...

For obvious reasons, music from Terezin (Theresienstadt) wasn't heard outside the camp. In the immediate post-war years, people were sti...

Even in Theresienstadt (Terezin) , music thrived, against all odds. "Our will to create culture was as strong as our will to live...