Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T23:51:29.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - A Terezín Personality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2023

David Fligg
Affiliation:
University of Chester
Get access

Summary

By April 1942, Klein was composing once again, and was busier than ever. He had a steady stream of new compositions, was preparing for, and performing in, concerts and rehearsals, and had his general responsibilities in the Free Time Administration. In addition, he was involved in the Youth Care Department, and was taking part in an ambitious lecture series. The main office of the Free Time Administration was in the Magdeburg Barracks (now part of the Terezín Memorial Museum and its archives) and so, in addition to his other workplace, L417, the Magdeburg is where he spent much of his time. Irma Semecká worked in the office and, in the final months of his imprisonment, they became very close, eventually falling deeply in love. Klein's senior by three years, she was enormously intelligent in her own right. She confided, in a letter to Lisa dated 3 June 1945, that ‘in those six months we did not say a single bad word to each other’. He used to visit the office ‘to warm up when his fingers were nearly freezing to the keys of the piano’, Irma recalled:

He would sit down for a while, have a chat but mostly he would only listen. Afterwards he would leave as quietly as he had entered, carrying a few pieces of coal in his hands to be able to warm up his studio.

The studio, as Klein proudly called it, was in reality ‘a dark squalid cubbyhole with a window and bars, an old mattress replacing the window glass’, Irma said. She continues:

It was next to a privy which stank so bad that sitting there was pure torture. However, Gideon would spend several hours a day in that cubbyhole, in which the only piece of furniture was an upright piano, if we do not count the chair in.

Klein's fellow pianist and friend from Prague, Truda Solarová, has presented a vivid picture of some of his work:

He was using his position to help other musicians to develop their talents, regardless of whether they were young or old, professionals or amateurs. It was his trademark to strive for genuine art and to avoid any compromise. His talents were many and varied. Right at the beginning of his time in Terezín, he organised poetry readings. The first was an evening of French poetry in Karel Čapek's translation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Don't Forget about Me
The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist
, pp. 195 - 203
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • A Terezín Personality
  • David Fligg, University of Chester
  • Book: Don't Forget about Me
  • Online publication: 14 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800104990.018
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • A Terezín Personality
  • David Fligg, University of Chester
  • Book: Don't Forget about Me
  • Online publication: 14 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800104990.018
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Terezín Personality
  • David Fligg, University of Chester
  • Book: Don't Forget about Me
  • Online publication: 14 June 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800104990.018
Available formats
×