Gido's coming home! Performing Music and Theatre from the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto for Commemoration, Education and Inspiration

'Gido's coming home!' is a six-month series of commemorative, pedagogical and performance events that builds on the AHRC-funded Performing the Jewish Archive (PtJA) project to reach new audiences in the Czech Republic. Gido - the extraordinary young Czech-Jewish composer Gideon Klein - would have been 100 years old on 6th December 2019, had he not perished in the Holocaust at the age of 25. With a series of commemorative events, pedagogical workshops and public performances celebrating his life, and the lives and work of other individual artists who were also imprisoned in the Terezin Ghetto near Prague, we will disseminate the PtJA outputs and methods that our Czech partners find most useful for commemoration, education and inspiration.

The PtJA project aimed to recover and restage musical and theatrical works created by displaced Jewish artists during the long 20th century. PtJA's objectives were to reconceptualise the notion of 'the archive' by treating traditional archival materials, survivor testimony and artistic creations by Jewish artists as sources of equal value, to seek such works in newly discovered archives, to disseminate the results both to academic and public beneficiaries, especially through public performances, and to create a new, sustainable archive, in particular through an interactive web resource that makes recordings of our work available to educators and the public.

Because the Terezin Ghetto in the Czech Republic, with its unusually active cultural life, was one of our key sites of investigation for PtJA, we held one of our international performance festivals in the Czech Republic in September 2016. Due to the success of that festival and the collaborative relationships developed in the process, new pathways have opened up for us to reach Czech communities in small towns outside of the capital, to hold events in unusual venues to attract new audiences, and to influence Czech pedagogy about the Holocaust thanks to unexpected levels of access granted by Czech organizations (for example, to their own teacher training programmes).

The events will take place from July to December 2019:

July 2019. During a five-day Jewish cultural festival held in the small town of Holesov we will present a cabaret based on original material by Terezin artists and a play based on Klein's life.

September 2019. Cultural and pedagogical events in the provinces and in the capital include: a commemoration in Klein's hometown of Prerov, including a jazz concert hosted by the city and featuring a new composition inspired by Gideon Klein, a concert of Klein's work in a recently renovated historic home in the provincial city of Brno, a lecture at the Jewish Museum in Prague on creating new plays from scripts written in the Terezin ghetto, and a workshop in Prague for 31 newly arrived Fulbright teachers on using the Terezin artists' legacy in English-language education.

December 2019. The events for the anniversary of Klein's birth will take place in Prague and include: a commemorative concert at the Prague Conservatory where Klein completed his musical studies and the unveiling of a permanent exhibition there in his honour, a celebration at the Maisel Synagogue featuring Klein's music, a new composition inspired by him, and the launch of Dr Fligg's new biography of Klein, and a finale concert celebrating Klein's life in a recently renovated historic home, with spectators invited to attend in 1930s dress.

By aiming to reach new audiences of spectators and educators we strive for an outcome that, although virtually impossible to measure, is of inestimable value: that as people's awareness of the incredible individuals who were lost in the Holocaust grows, they will become increasingly willing to oppose the types of discrimination that could lead to similar catastrophes.

We envisage the following main beneficiaries and the benefits to them:

The Czech public who will attend our performances and other events. In a country where the Jewish history of World War II was suppressed for decades by the Communist government, benefits to spectators include greater awareness of their own historical and cultural heritage. Our events have been designed to appeal to two new audiences in particular:
o audiences in small towns and rural areas far from the capital. We have selected two small Moravian towns: Holesov and Prerov. Both were home to thriving Jewish communities before World War II, but not enough survivors returned to revive them after 1945. Holesov is aware of its Jewish past and holds an annual festival of Jewish culture, but their programmes since 2015 have included only limited offerings about Terezin and none based on the prisoners' own art. They have extended us an enthusiastic invitation. Prerov, the town where Klein was born, focuses less on its Jewish heritage, but the welcome has been equally enthusiastic. We have tailored our approach to local interests: the municipality holds a regular series of jazz concerts in the festival hall of the historic Prerov chateau, and they have invited us to organize a jazz concert in Klein's honour; local composer Martin Konvicka will compose a new work to be premiered there.
o audiences in larger cities that may not yet be interested in Jewish culture but might be drawn to interesting venues. In Brno (the provincial capital of Moravia) and in Prague, we have located two historic homes that belonged to prominent Jewish families before World War II. These have now been restored and are used as venues for cultural events. Both are partnering with us to offer concerts in honour of Gideon Klein, and we anticipate that curiosity about the venues will draw new audiences.

Local artists, both professional and amateur. Collaborating artists will also benefit from greater awareness of their own historical and cultural heritage, but due to more sustained engagement with our research material and their status as artists themselves, may come to a deeper understanding of the Terezin artists' cultural efforts as an act of agency. Since many of our collaborating artists-for example, the two composers-are relatively early in their careers, the commissions will be welcome and the exposure beneficial to them. Our amateur (in Holesov) and student (at the Prague conservatory) performers will benefit from the opportunity to work on a project of historical and cultural significance, and to become acquainted with works they could incorporate into their own repertoires.

Educators. Through our lecture and workshop, teachers will become acquainted with new content (including the new biography of Klein, the scripts by and about Terezin artists, and the Jewish Music and Theatre Online website) and new methods of engaging with the cultural legacy of the Terezin Ghetto that they can use in their classrooms.

Institutions. The Jewish Museum, our long-time partner, will benefit from events such as the concert and book launch in the Maisel synagogue that will potentially bring new public audiences into their spaces, and will benefit from the lecture they are hosting that aligns with their own goals of Holocaust commemoration and education. Our partner venues (the Löw-Beer villa, owned by the South Moravian regional government, and Winternitz villa, owned by descendants of the original owners), will benefit from the quality programming we are bringing to their venues, and from the opportunity to find out what new audiences these events may draw.

In order to measure the impact of our events , we will collect audience/participant numbers, written comments regarding their experience of our events, and interviews with selected participants. Please see the Data Management Plan for details.