PT Journal
AU Frank, M
TI The Lullaby of Ilse Weber: Terezin as a Mirror Image
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2015
BP 25
EP 38
VL 22
IS 2
DI 10.5507/mo.2015.011
DE Auschwitz; Freizeitgestaltung; Ilse Weber; Lullaby; Memorial; Mirror Image; Potemkin Village; Sentimentality; Terezin/Theresienstadt
AB Although Ilse Weber's compositions have become central to the "Terezin canon", very few of her musical manuscripts are available. My study argues that the lack of sources actually serves Weber's popularity, as her Terezin songs can be tailored to the needs of individual performers to represent manifold notions of Terezin. Furthermore, my research juxtaposes Terezin's current status as a memorial site with its original function as a "Potemkin Village." Considering that much of the complexity of Terezin's original soundscape has been ignored or suppressed, I argue that it has become a simplified mirror image of the "model ghetto" it originally was.
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