Tender is that memory nearly lost. Theresienstadt was a concentration camp and ghetto established by the German Schutzstaffel during World War II in the Bohemian fortress town of Terez��n. Theresienstadt had two purposes: it was a coordinating center ahead of the extermination camps, and an erstwhile retirement community for elderly and prominent Jews intended to mislead their respective communities about German intentions. Camp conditions were engineered to hasten the death of its prisoners through inadequate diet and overwork, while the ghetto played a propaganda role, offering the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, a palatable face to what was to become The Final Solution.

The propaganda role of the camp capitalized on its rich cultural life, including (or, better, allowing) concerts, lectures, and education for children. Terezin stood apart from the other concentration camps as it was governed by Jewish self-administration and included a larger population of Jewish artists, musicians, and intellectuals, giving the camp the appearance of a benign waystation ahead of an ostensibly benign relocation.

Many professional musicians were housed at the Theresienstadt ghetto. Karel An?erl conducted an orchestra composed mostly of professional musicians. Composer Viktor Ullmann produced more than 20 works while imprisoned at Theresienstadt, including the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis. The children's opera Brundib��r, composed in 1938 by Hans Kr��sa, was first performed at Theresienstadt on September 23, 1943. A popular performance, the opera was performed 55 times until the final transports of autumn 1944 emptied the camp.

In 2006, Naxos Records released Kr��sa's Brundib��r as performed by the Northwest Boychoir under the direction of Joseph Crnko, Chorus-master and the Music of Remembrance, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. This recording also contained Lori Laitman's art song settings for six poems from I Never Saw Another Butterfly, arranged for soprano and clarinet. These poems were written by child victims of the Holocaust. A reputed 15,000 children passed through Terezin, fewer than 100 survived.

Vocalist