Ela Weissberger's Jewish star.

Opera Theater of St. Louis (OTSL) presented the children’s opera “Brundibar” this November in the Touhill Performing Arts Center. In addition to an outstanding cast, the performance was graced by the presence of Holocaust survivor Ela Weissberger.
The composer Hans Krasa finished the play in Theresienstadt, a model camp where Hitler placed artists and musicians to show foreigners the decent quality of life given to the captured Jews. Theresienstadt was a walled city in Czechoslovakia designed for 10,000 people and eventually filled with 160,000 people. “Brundibar” was originally written in Czech and then translated to German and English.
Stage Director Doug Scholz-Carlson worked extensively on the play’s choreography in order to have it reflect the original productions as much as possible. He is a free-lance director brought in by OTSL for “Brundibar.”
“The production is really like an urban fairy tale that exists in a big city,” Scholz-Carlson said. “Aninku and Pepicek’s father is dead and their mother needs milk to get better. When they go to the marketplace, they figure out that they need money, but are drowned out by the organ grinder Brundibar’s mechanical music. They’re stuck in the marketplace at night. They meet a talking cat, sparrow and dog, who figure out that if they get all the kids to sing together, then they will be able to drown out the organ grinder.”
With a production cast consisting solely of children, the directors met challenges but still found the children a delight to work with.
“If you’re doing a production with younger people, you’re trying to teach the cast how to act and trying to stage a performance at the same time,” Scholz-Carlson said. “This production is interesting because it was written to be performed by children. Part of what we’re trying to do is show the life of the children who lived at the same time.”
Music Director Greg Ritchey agrees.
“Young casts are different,” Ritchey said. “There are some things that are more challenging and some that are easier. They have an incredible amount of energy. I’ve found that the best thing is to treat them like adults. They are like sponges. Their abilities to soak in new ideas are astonishing.”
Ritchey believes that the score is very efficient. The biggest problem lies with the instruments that the composer had to work with in Theresienstadt.
“For me there’s a charm about the musical score that’s very bright, in spite of the circumstances,” Ritchey said. “It’s the simple charm and the rhythm of it. This production encapsulates the historical significance as well. Musically, the biggest challenge is the orchestration we were given. The composer was dealing with the instruments that he had.”
Ela Weissberger performed in the original opera in Theresienstadt after arriving there on Feb. 4, 1942. She played the role of the talking cat for a total of 55 performances. After each performance in St. Louis, she gave a speech to the audience regarding her experiences.
According to Weissberger, the organ grinder Brundibar was symbolically associated with Hitler by the members of the model camp. At the end of the opera, the children triumph over Brundibar and they sing a victory song.

“When you get to the final victory march, it’s like a triumph for the original cast and even the people that heard it,” Ritchey said. “For these people, it was the ability to overcome the most difficult situations. It’s not just about Hitler; we’ve all felt in our lives about something that we can’t overcome and the ending of the play transcends that. It’s been a very meaningful experience. I’ve actually been to Theresienstadt and done other music. To do something like that with children the same age as the original cast is amazing.”
According to Weissberger, Theresienstadt was just a pit stop to Auschwitz.
“We were lucky that we had caretakers and teachers,” Weissberger said. “At a young age, we lost our childhood. We had to take care of ourselves. They separated us into group and my caretaker was a music teacher. She had a friend who used to teach us songs in Hebrew. In the cellar, we found a harmonium, and she wanted to play an opera for us. We went in the cellar and in the dark we dragged the harmonium up to our room. From the beginning, music was a really big part of our lives.”
After being liberated on May 10, 1945, she returned to the Czech Republic.
“At first, I didn’t think people were interested in our stories,” Weissberger said. “When we came back to the Czech Republic, we weren’t really welcome. When I saw that I wasn’t welcome in my home, it was very hard for me. I never thought that I would be respected.”
Weissberger worries about the memories that will die alongside her generation of survivors.
“Last month I was in Theresienstadt and we worked on a documentary about ‘Brundibar,’” Weissberger said. “This is the first time since we did that propaganda film that I went in the hall. There are still bits in that hall that I can still remember. People were hanging on ledges of the walls listening to the opera.”
She now travels across the United States to theaters performing “Brundibar” to share her experiences.
“Now I have so many friends and I love St. Louis,” Weissberger said. “When I think about this opera and how it’s performed over the entire world, I realize that it will never die. The last time we performed was 65 years ago. The performance means so much to so many people. After that last performance, most of the children in the cast were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. When we were on that stage, we forgot where we were. I hear kids saying that they hate school. They don’t know what it’s like not to be in school.”
After all this time, she still holds on to her Jewish star that she isn’t ashamed of anymore.
“Now I’m free in America,” Weissberger said. “Out of the 1.5 million Jewish children, there are so few left and we will disappear soon. As the audience listens to us survivors, they will carry on the memories. I’m very proud to be Jewish, and wouldn’t even mind wearing my star today. When we sang in ‘Brundibar,’ we didn’t have to wear our stars and it was our form of resistance against the Nazis.”
Senior Andrea Goldstein played violin in the pit orchestra for “Brundibar.” Goldstein is Jewish and felt a particularly strong connection to the opera.
“The opera was really touching to me,” Goldstein said. “Every performance reminded me of the struggles that Jews as well as other groups of people faced during the Holocaust. The fact that young children were the voice pieces for the story to be told was special to me. I know now that the memory of the people who perished in the Holocaust will live on.”
The orchestra went through over 10 hours of rehearsal before meeting the cast.
“I felt it was important that we got to play the music that people in the Holocaust played,” Goldstein said. “This felt like part of spreading the message and ensuring the survival of the memories. When I met Ela Weissberger, I felt that it was a really special moment because I feel connected to the events of the Holocaust because I’m Jewish. The fact that I was able to meet a survivor was amazing. The story she told and the way she looks at the world is really inspirational. She shows that no matter what happens in your life you can prevail and survive both mentally and physically.”  