Bringing Terezin music to life 

The writings of Viktor Frankl. The art of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. The musical compositions of Viktor Ullmann and Gideon Klein. The legacy of the Jews of Theresienstadt continue well beyond the Holocaust.

Eight decades later, they have inspired a new concert, A Path to the Light (HaDerech El Ha’Or), which explores how meaning, purpose and creativity can persist in the darkest of times.

“The idea is to... take the thoughts and dreams of the children of Theresienstadt, along with their artworks, and the thoughts of Viktor Frankl and Leo Baeck and other great thinkers and doers, and to compose new music to their words,” artistic director Simon Starr told The Jewish Independent. 

A Path to the Light will bring together contemporary Australian Jewish performers and composers – including Lior, Paul Grabowsky, Anita Lester and Luke Howard, among others – to reflect on the words, thoughts and insights of the Jews of Theresienstadt. 

Unlike other concentration camps, Theresienstadt’s detainees included scholars, philosophers, scientists, artists and musicians who contributed to the cultural life of the ghetto. This unique outcome was used as propaganda by the Nazis to deceive Western allies, while the camp itself was subject to extreme population density, malnutrition and disease.