February 18 through May 13, 2012 - Note: Extended through May 27, 2012
This moving exhibition features more than 30 objects from the Beit Theresienstadt Holocaust Museum, Archive and Educational Center in Israel. The works, including collages, drawings, embroidery, dolls, diaries, magazines, games, and marionettes, were created by children at the Theresienstadt ghetto in what is now the Czech Republic. The Theresienstadt Ghetto, (Terezin in Czech) was established in the northwestern part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on November 24, 1941. It was alleged to be a "Jewish town" for the Protectorate's Jews, but was in fact a Concentration and Transit Camp, which functioned until its liberation on May 8, 1945.
During its operation, 12,171 Jewish children (born 1928-1945) were sent to GhettoTheresienstadt; 9,001 of these children were deported to the "East," of whom 325 survived. For many of the children, these objects are the only things that remain from their lives.
This exhibition is part of The Theresienstadt Project, a collaborative educational effort among the Reading Public Museum, the Reading Symphony Orchestra, and the Jewish Federation of Reading. (see below)
Opening Reception
Saturday, February 18 – 6 - 8 p.m. (Havdalah* Service in the Atrium at 6:30 p.m.)
$15 for Members / $20 for Non-Members. Light hors d' oeuvres and refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to lauren.mccarroll@readingpublicmuseum.org or by calling 610-371-5850 x264.
Reception presented by:
*Havdalah is a brief, spiritual ceremony that marks the end of the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. The name "havdalah" comes from the Hebrew word l'havdeel, which means to distinguish or separate. Havdalah is a ceremony that distinguishes between the holy Sabbath day and the secular work week.
Click here to watch a WFMZ Channel 69 News "One Tank Trip" segment on this exhibition.
Click here to watch BCTV program by the Berks Inter-Cultural Alliance featuring this exhibition and The Theresienstadt Project.
Related Programming (additional events to be added - please check back)
Inge Auerbacher – Video Presentation and Discussion
Sunday, February 19 - 11 a.m.
Inge Auerbacher, a survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto, author, and inspirational speaker will be a special guest at the Opening Reception on Saturday, February 18.
The next morning, Auerbacher will present a special "Members-Only" video showing of The Olympic Doll in our auditorium (doors will open at 10:30 that morning). The film tells the story of Inge and her doll, "Marlene," with whom she survived her ordeal at Theresienstadt. The doll has since been donated to The Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Following the film, Auerbacher will be joined by Oded Breda, Director of Beit Theresienstadt, Israel, for a discussion and presentation. This presentation is limited to the first 100 people who RSVP and pay in advance ($5, Museum Members only). Please RSVP to lauren.mccarroll@readingpublicmuseum.org or by calling 610-371-5850 x264.
As a Holocaust survivor, Inge's spirit and achievements are truly remarkable. She was born in Germany and spent three years between 7-10 years of age in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. She remembers when the now-famous children's opera, Brundibár, was first written and performed while she was in Terezin. Auerbacher tells her life story in three books; I Am a Star: Child of the Holocaust, Beyond the Yellow Star to America, and Finding Dr. Schatz: The Discovery of Streptomycin and a Life It Saved. Inge has also reached out to the African-American community by writing about her friends, Mary and Martha DeSaussure (pioneering track stars of Brooklyn) in her book, Running Against the Wind. She will have copies of her books available at The Museum on Sunday for sale and signing.
Click here to hear an interview with Inge, recorded here on February 17, 2012. (mp3 - 40 minutes)
Bagels, Bach & Beyond - Klingon Klez
Sunday, February 26 - 10 a.m. - Noon
Join us for light breakfast and live music in the Atrium! Today's performance features "Klingon Klez," presenting a program of traditional Jewish music (and a few surprising arrangements) in honor of our this exhibition.
Admission to Bagels, Bach & Beyond is $30 for Non-Members and $20 for Members and includes light breakfast, the concert and admission to the Museum after the show. Limited seating – pre-registration is suggested. Call 610-371-5850 x264 or click here.
Readers Theatre - The Diary of Anne Frank
Genesius Theatre Players (at The Museum)
Thursday, Feb. 23 - 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25 - 7 p.m.,
Sunday, Feb. 26 - 2 p.m.
$10 for Members / $15 for Non-Members
The wonderful players of Genesius take a seat for their thought-provoking reading of The Diary of Anne Frank. Click here for informational flier and registration form.
Lecture (part of series)
Lost and Found: The Confiscation of European Art by the Nazis and its Repatriation
Dr. Pamela Volkman
Friday, March 30 - 6 p.m.
- More information coming soon.
Series cost: $45 per Member / $60 per Non-Member
Per Lecture cost: $20 per Member / $30 per non-Member
Contact Anne Corso at 610-371-5850 x227
Gustav Oberlaender's 1936 Movies
Saturday, April 14 - 2 p.m. in The Museum auditiorium
$20 per Member / $30 per Non-Member
In 1936, Gustav Oberlaender, a Wyomissing businessman and philanthropist, and his wife traveled to Europe on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary and returned three months later on the airship Hindenburg. He took movies of these dramatic voyages and of his visits in 1936 Germany.
Oberlaender’s movies capture many scenes demonstrating Nazi propaganda, such as the Berlin Olympic Games, highly decorated downtown Berlin, the newly opened German autobahn, a parade in Munich with horses and historic military uniforms and a massive Hitler rally in Frankfurt with shots of Hitler and a dozen marching youth groups. Other historic scenes relate to General and President Hindenburg’s residence, a World War I monument where he was buried, and Oberlaender’s birthplace in the “millionaires” town of Dueren, Germany.
George Edmonds, who recently authored a book on 12 archaeological objects that came from Oberlaender to The Museum, will introduce and then show and narrate the movies.
Click here for informational flier and registration form.
Exhibition presented by: 
Beit Theresienstadt - Theresienstadt Martyrs Remembrance Association 
To watch a "Comcast Newsmakers" segment about this exhibition, click here. (YouTube)
To download the latest press release, click here. (PDF)
The Theresienstadt (Terezin) Project
Over a period of three and a half years, approximately 158,000 Jews, from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as evacuees from other concentration camps, were transferred to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Of these, 88,129 were sent on to their death in the "East," of whom only 4,134 survived. In Theresienstadt itself 35,409 died from "natural" causes like illness and hunger, and appproximately 30,000 inmates were liberated in the ghetto. 12,171 Jewish children (born 1928-1945) were sent to Ghetto Theresienstadt; 9,001 were deported to the "East," of whom 325 children survived.
The Germans also meant to use Theresienstadt Ghetto as a "Show Camp" for propaganda purposes - to mislead or conceal the physical annihilation of the Jews being deported from the "Greater German Reich," as well as to refute the rumors about the way the Germans were treating the Jews who were sent to the camps, and about the extermination of the Jews in the "East."
The camp imprisoned or held for deportation, thousands of intellectuals, writers, composers, musicians, conductors, those involved in theater and film and recognized rabbis and spiritual leaders. It was an evil ruse, profoundly described by noted writer, Chaim Potok, "Auschwitz was the Kingdom of Death. Theresienstadt was the Kingdom of Deceit."
Using music and the visual arts, the story of those starved, beaten, tortured and murdered will be told through three major events. The Theresienstadt Project is an unprecedented collaboration between the Reading Public Museum, the Reading Symphony Orchestra, and the Jewish Federation of Reading, along with Fleetwood Area High School, Holocaust Library and Resource Center at Albright College, Berks Classical Children's Chorus and Berks Opera Workshop.
Special Thanks to "The Theresienstadt Project" Sponsors:
- Boscov's Department Stores, Inc.
- Sidney & Esther Bratt
- Customers Bank
- Fox Theatres
- Debbie Goodman & John Moyer
- Victor & Dena Hammel
- Jerry & Carolyn Holleran
- Trygve & Kathy Kleppinger
- Edwin & Alma Lakin
- Dr. Jerome Marcus
- Leni May
- Dave & Debbie Meas
- Oritsky/Skaist Family Fund
- Partners Design
- Penn National Gaming Foundation
- Penske Truck Leasing
- Puffin Foundation
- Reading Musical Foundation
- Rubin Family Fund
- The Arthur & Beatrice Hammel Jewish Music Series
- The Pennsylvania Council for the Arts
- VIST Financial
- Rosalye Yashek
Events & Venues
Last Flight of Petr Ginz, Special Screening of the documentary film
Wednesday, March 28 – 7:00 p.m.; Fox East, Reading Mall
Free admission; Seating on a first come basis
Petr Ginz boarded a transport train to Terezin on October 22, 1942. At age 14, he had already written five novels and a diary that chronicled the Nazi occupation of Prague. He died at the age of 16 in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. He had produced more than 170 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and had written a variety of short stories.
Petr's story is told in the special release of this documentary by Sandy Dickson, Churchill Roberts, Cindy Hill and Cara Pilson, a crew of professional filmmakers and university professors who have worked together for twenty years producing their own work for national and international broadcasts and distribution and film festival and museum screenings and educating aspiring documentary filmmakers.
Special thanks to Fox Theatres for hosting this special screening event.
Misa's Fugue, a documentary film
The film, Misa's Fugue, premieres at the Miller Center for the Performing Arts on Monday evening, April 16 (invitation only); public opening at the FILM THEATRE at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts begins on Friday, April 20.
Frank (Misa) Grunwald was born in Czechoslovakia in September of 1932. Four months later, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Misa's Fugue is the true story of one boy's journey through Prague, Terezin, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Melk, and Gunskirken as a victim of arbitrary Nazi oppression. While exposed to some of the most horrific people, places, and events of the Holocaust, Frank Grunwald was able to endure the atrocities of genocide through a love for art and music that his childhood in Prague had instilled in him. His story of suffering, loss, and self-discovery is poignantly told from the perspective of a child who has lived with these tragic memories for more than half of a century. Encountering the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele and legendary artist Dina Babbit along the way, Frank Grunwald's life demonstrates the decision that all men and women must make to devote their lives either to the creation or destruction of human civilization.
The tapestry of tragedy and artistry in the life of Frank Grunwald is interwoven with the teenage painters, sculptors, musicians, and filmmakers from Fleetwood Area High School who collaborated to create a documentary that attempts to embellish the creative spirit amidst the most destructive moment in human history.
Poignantly told through film and interviews with Frank Grunwald, the documentary was edited, musically scored and visually supported by the efforts of students and faculty of Fleetwood Area High School.
Yom Hashoah Remembrance & Memorial Service
Will To Create, Will to Live: The Music of Terezín – Nash Ensemble & Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
(re-broadcast of this landmark concert event) – Memorial Candlelighting will immediately follow the concert
Thursday, April 19 – 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (no charge) – Neag Planetarium at the Reading Public Museum
Nash Ensemble: Stephanie Gonley, violin; Laura Samuel, violin; Lawrence Power, viola; Paul Watkins, cello; Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone; Russell Ryan, piano
Will To Create, Will to Live: The Music of Terezín is a dynamic interdisciplinary series that reveals the significance of Terezín—a transition camp/ghetto in occupied Bohemia during World War II—in which, despite Nazi terror, great art, music and educational activity flourished.
Theresienstadt's Children and their Art, an art exhibition
Organized in collaboration with Beit Theresienstadt Center, Givat Haim Ihud, Israel, this exhibition of children's art opens at the Reading Public Museum in February, 2012. See information and additional programming above.
Brundibár, an opera
Hans Krasa's children's opera, Brundibár, will be performed by musicians of the Reading Symphony Orchestra, vocalists from Berks Opera Workshop and the Berks Classical Children's Chorus on Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in downtown Reading. This is a free event made possible by the Oritsky/Skaist Family Fund of the Jewish Federation of Reading. Seating is available on a first-come basis.
The opera was performed more than fifty times by children and musicians in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Hans Krasa, a Czech composer wrote the children's opera prior to being deported to Terezin in 1942. The rehearsals and performances included an ever changing stream of performers, replacing the previous performers who had been shipped to Auschwitz for extermination.
The opera tells a story of friendship, good winning over evil and overcoming bullies. The significance of the historical context in which it was originally performed – in a concentration camp and under the watchful eye of the Nazi murderers, is especially ironic. In spite of its obvious message, Brundibár was consistently chosen as a showpiece for various Nazi propaganda exercises including a performance before representatives of the International Red Cross in June 1944. The opera was later used for a Nazi propaganda film of the ghetto.
