Description of "Brundibar" performance from April 2nd, 2014 at WBAIS (American School in Israel

1. All-Star Cast--Original Child Actors Who Survived the Holocaust, Attend WBAIS
Performance of the Infamous “Brundibar”
“Brundibar” a children’s opera by Czech composer Hans Krasa was performed over
three consecutive nights, by two full casts made up of approximately sixty 3rd
thru 12th
grade children who attend the Walworth Barbour American International School.
In addition, students not only painted the backdrop
and filled the school lobby with related artworks, but
in true team effort, they created 15,000 handmade
paper butterflies—the number of children who
passed through and died in the Terezin ghetto—and
hung them in the school courtyard for a guest
reception hosted by the embassies of the Czech
Republic and the United States.
The play tells the story of Pepicek and Aninka, two
young children who rush into town to find milk and
medicine for their ailing mother. When they are
spurned by the townspeople, they try singing to earn
cash to buy the remedies, but they are confronted by
a volatile organ grinder who chases them away from
his turf, and steals money they have collected. In the
end, the townspeople unite with the children and
confront the bullying thief.
The infamy of the operetta, however, is not the
defeat of the tyrant organ-grinder Brundibar, whose character parallels that of Adolf
Hitler. The tragedy is that the original children’s opera made its premiere in a death
camp of Jewish detainees-- the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto—where Hans Krasa, and
the child actors who performed it, were imprisoned.
Worse yet, it was an
attempt by the Nazis to
convince the world of
their humanity in dealing
with their Terezin
prisoners. The play was
performed more than 55
times in the camp
outside of Prague, and
the Nazis filmed it for use
as propaganda (part of
the film was found when
Allied soldiers liberated
the camp.). The Nazis
Above left and right: WBAIS students performing in the 70
th
anniversary
showing of Brundibar, a children’s opera by Czech composer Hans Krasa.

2. Ela Weissberger, center, poses with WBAIS students after
their performance of Brundibar, the children's opera by Hans
Krasa. Ela played the role of the cat in the original showing,
which was performed at the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto
camp outside Prague in 1944.
also commissioned its
performance in front of a
committee of the International Red
Cross in 1944; but after its run,
they transferred Krasa and many of
the actors to Auschwitz, where they
were executed.
The WBAIS students and their
director Frannie Goldstein
produced an outstanding and
endearing 70th
anniversary
performance. But the participation
of a handful of original cast
members, who survived the
Holocaust and joined the actors
onstage for the finale, moved the
audience more than this simple
article can describe.
Above and upper right:
Surrounded by ex-prisoners of the
Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto in the
Czech Republic, Handa Drori (microphone
in hand) introduces herself as a former
cast member of the original Brundibar, at
the 70
th
commemorative performance at
Walworth Barbour American International
School April 2, 2014. At right is Greta
Klingsberg, who played the role of Aninka
for some 50 performances, after which
she was sent to Auschwitz death camp
with her sister. Photos by Mary Knight