Music drama revives life of composer killed at Auschwitz

GIDEON Klein was one of the most remarkable young musicians of his generation and he continued to compose and perform even after he was rounded up by the Nazis.  Only death at Auschwitz silenced his voice.  But now it is heard again in a music drama being performed around the world at venues that include the Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre at the University of Huddersfield – on Thursday 19 March (7.30pm).

Titled Gideon Klein: Portrait of a Composer, it charts a young man’s determination to make music under the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and includes performances of compositions by Klein alongside dramatisations of his life, based on material that includes eyewitness testimony and documentary evidence.

It was created by the lecturer and researcher Dr David Fligg, who has authored a book on Gideon Klein and co-directed a highly successful festival in the Czech Republic dedicated to the music and memory of a man from a Jewish family who was born in Moravia in 1919 and who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1945.

“For some years, I was interested in the whole idea of music in the Holocaust and how Jewish musicians continued to compose and perform,” said Dr Fligg.

“I realised that although some of the music of Gideon Klein was being performed, pretty much all of his musical activities in Prague before he was transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp and his eventual death in Auschwitz had hardly been researched at all.”

When Dr Fligg visited the archives of the Jewish museum in Prague he encountered a stack of documentary evidence that miraculously survived the war.  He set to work and ten years later the results include the biography Letter from Gideon, the Gido’s Coming Home! festival that took place in the Czech Republic to commemorate Klein’s centenary, and the Portrait of a Composer performance that now comes to Huddersfield after being seen in countries that include the USA and Germany.

It features a string quartet and three actors who recreate Gideon Klein’s life and music.  Dr Fligg will be present and takes part in a Q&A session after the performance.

Gideon Klein continued to be highly active in Prague in the early years of the German occupation, but then was transported to Theresienstadt – known as Terezin in Czech.  This was a holding camp for Jews who would later be moved on to the death camps and could be used by the Nazis to dupe agencies such as the Red Cross, masking the reality of the Holocaust.

While in Theresienstadt, Klein continued to compose and perform, driven by his determination to remain a professional composer and pianist, said Dr Fligg.

The Portrait of a Composer performance includes Gideon Klein’s trio for violin, viola and cello.  “It is a great piece, one of the 20th century’s most exquisite pieces of chamber music,” said Dr Fligg.

It was also the last piece that Klein composed in Theresienstadt before he was transported to Auschwitz.