The article concludes with a brief commentary on contemporary adaptations of the opera. It demonstrates the ways in which scenography may serve as a reminder of normality for children dealing with issues that cannot otherwise be confronted. The aim is to underscore the power in creating and reading scenographic images under coercive conditions, with Brundibár as a paradigmatic example. This article analyses Zelenka’s scenography by focusing on the visual metaphors embedded in the stage images he created, and offers an insight on the multiple roles of Brundibár’s original scenography and its impact. The staging of Brundibár consisted of visual statements that were an integral part of the scenography and acquired meaning in the context of the ghetto.

Despite the harsh living conditions, 55 performances are known to have been held in Theresienstadt between 19. Brundibár was originally created in 1938 by the Czech Jewish composer Hans Krása and the librettist Adolf Hoffmeister in Prague. Among his works in the ghetto, the children’s opera Brundibár, designed and directed by Zelenka, stands out. The analysis is based on original research at the Archives of the Jewish Museum in Prague, on contemporary press critic and oral history sources including two interviews with the survivors who participated on making of the films, Helga Hošková-Weissová and Anna Hyndráková, conducted by the author throughout 2019.Ĭzech architect-scenographer František Zelenka was a well-known pre-war designer for the National Theatre in Prague, deported by the Nazis to the Theresienstadt ghetto, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, where he participated extensively in the inmates’ theatrical activity. At the same time, it explores the films’ cultural-political significance in the context of late 1950s and early 1960s Czechoslovakia. It examines the history of the films’ production as well as their reception by the public, press and official cultural establishment. The article seeks to provide a film-historical analysis of the works that has been missing in the Theresienstadt film studies context as well as in studies of documentary film on Holocaust. The two films in focus here employed drawings and paintings made by Jewish children imprisoned in Theresienstadt between 19. This article explores two films that represent, at least in the Czechoslovak context, the first gesture towards the possibility of animating archival material on Nazi crimes.

Jurnal (1938–1945) by Helga Weissová