Ilse Weber: Three Songs

Описание: Three Songs
0:00 Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt
3:31 Und der Regen rinnt
4:55 Wiegala

Please enjoy our performance of these three songs by Ilse Weber. Ilse was a Czech author, songwriter, and poet. When the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Webers were able to get their eldest son to safety in Sweden through Kindertransport. However, in 1941, Nazis began deporting Jews to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. Unfortunately, Ilse, her husband, and their younger son Tommy were sent to Theresienstadt in February of the following year. She worked in the camp's children's hospital at night, doing all she could for the patients without the help of medicine, as it was forbidden for Jewish prisoners. She wrote many poems while there and set a good number of them to music. She would accompany herself on guitar as she sang her lullaby-like songs to children and the elderly. When her husband was deported to Auschwitz two years later, she and Tommy went with him so as not to break up their family. It is said that Ilse sang to her son and many other children as she accompanied them voluntarily into the gas chambers. We reflect on Ilse’s perseverance and fortitude and are honored to bring you this performance.

mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas
pianist Michael Lewis

Thumbnail photo: Barbara Face