Ute Lemper - Ich Wander Durch Theresienstadt

Piano: Francesco Lotoro Bass: Guiseppe Bassi Bandoneon: Victor Villena Violin: Daniel Hoffman Clarinet: Andre Campanella Concert filmed by RAI in Mantova, Italy “Ich Wander Durch Theresienstadt“ Written by Ilse Weber Ilse Weber was born 1903 in Witkowitz. She loved writing and published 3 books of Poetry and Stories and a book of Jewish Fairytales before 1933. In 1939 it was suddenly too late to emigrate from Prague, where she lived by now, with her family and her 2 children. In 1942 the entire family was deported to Theresienstadt. She became a nurse in the camps and took care of the weakest . At night she would reflect the horror she witnessed in poetry and written dreams and compositions. She sang in those years to the children and to the sick her songs and beautiful melodies , sometimes just her voice, sometimes she would find a guitar to accompany herself. In 1944 she and her sons together with all the sick children she was taking care of were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Her songs were never written down, but survivors were able to remember and bring them back to life. Her husband who survived had them published first in 1991, he remembered 55 of her beloved and heartbreaking songs. “Especially as a postwar German native, married to a Jewish man here in NY since 20 years, I am eternally sensitive and tortured by the history of the Holocaust. It is my responsibility and utmost ethical longing to honor the culture of the Jewish people and stimulate the dialog about the terrible past . This is a mission that I have adopted already in 1987 when I became the protagonist of the big recordings series on DECCA “Entartete Music“ that presented the Jewish composers and their music catalog banned by the Nazies. With SONGS FOR ETERNITY this mission continues and finds its most touching extension. I am overwhelmed by the stories behind each of the songs. I studied a most unique book, a song collection by Vevel Pasternak from 1948, that gathers heartbreaking songs from the Ghettos and Concentration Camps as well as the songbook of Ilse Weber, finally published by her husband in Israel in the 90s long after he survived Auschwitz. Both music collections were given to me by my dear friend Orly Beigel who is half Mexican, half Israeli and a child of a Holocaust Survivor. In 2015 I met Francesco Lotoro in Rome .He had dedicated many years to the research of music written in the concentration camps. It was an honor to present some of his collections with him playing the piano at our concerts.“ - Ute Lemper