*BRUNDIBAR and Holocaust Survivor Ela Weissberger*

Brundibar is a child's opera performed by children for children at Camp Theresienstadt (today known as Terezin). I saw this today originally for a class project but it turned out to be an amazing story with some powerful emotions attached. The stories told today were extremely sad and tear jerking at points. The lady above is Ela Weissberger, a Holocaust survivor from Camp Teresienstadt who used to sing in this opera many times! Wonderful lady...her and the other survivor that was there (not sure of his name tho) both were given standing ovations today and at the end one of the kids came off of the stage and grabbed Ela's hand to bring her on stage to help them perform their "victory" song.

History of Terezin as Theresienstadt:
Over 140,000 Jews were transferred to this camp, 90,000 were deported to concentration camps, 33,000 died at this camp. About 15,000 that passed through were children........only hundreds survived.

History of Ela Weissberger:
Last surviving member from the cast of Brundibar. She was 15 when she was freed from the camp in 1945.

History of Brundibar:
It was used as propaganda to show the world how great their camps were and  how well the detainees and Jews were treated. Ironically, the shower is about Brundibar (a bully) who gets defeated...the bully looks like Hitler with a giant black mustache and was defeated by the children. Jews knew this and it gave them to hope to know that Hitler may one day be defeated....but the Nazi's didn't have a clue and never saw it as a threat. In 1944, the International Red Cross visited the camp for an inspection. To show off how "wonderful" the camp was, the Nazi's had shipped off over 7,500 prisoners to have less crowding, planted flowers, painted buildings, and the detainees were ordered to give special performances to show to the Red Cross....Brundibar was chosen and in the end...it worked for a while and the Red Cross believed the perfect "model" camp.

Cast of Brundibar - Notice "Hitler" in the middle. Not sure which one was Ela, but she played the role of a cat. By the way, the boy who played Brundibar "Hitler" sadly did not make it out the Holocaust.

Ela's Biography

Ela Weissberger herself....