Tracks to Terezín
Encyclopedia
"Spuren nach Theresienstadt / Tracks to Terezín" is a film with Herbert Thomas Mandl
, a survivor of the Holocaust.
makes a bow after the performance of his composition “Study For String Orchestra” conducted by Karel Ančerl
at Terezín 1944. That photo is a stand by photo shot during the set of the propaganda film “A Documentary About The Jewish Settlement” about Theresienstadt (film)
. A member of that orchestra and also be seen on that photo is the violin player Herbert Thomas Mandl. He is a real witness of the 20th century. He was born in 1926 at Bratislava, his father Daniel Mandl
served for the artillery of the army of the Austrian-Hungarian Army at the Albanian front. At his childhood Mandl is in Ostrava and Brno and he gets education in playing the violin. After the occupation of the Nazis he and the family must go to the ghetto of Prague and will be later deported to the concentration camp of Terezín, which is used by the Nazis for propaganda. There he met the composer Viktor Ullmann
, Ullmann is now his teacher and conductor. Mandl is member of different orchestras in Terezín as in the string orchestra of
Karel Ančerl and also in the missed musical work “Villon” composed and conducted by Viktor Ullmann at Terezín. Deportation to Auschwitz. Death march together with his father to the concentration camp Dachau
-Kaufering IV. His father dies in Dachau. Herbert Thomas Mandl survives, he will be not executed at the concentration camp, because a member of the SS refuses to shoot. He sees the liberation of the camp by the US-Army. After the war Mandl works as a professor for violin at the academy in Ostrava. During the Cold War he comes in conflict with the regime. Unbelievable escape as a tourist to the American Embassy in Cairo and imprisoned in Egypt. Flight to Greece in a camp of the CIA and interrogations there. Mandl comes to Western Germany, people of the secret service believes he is a spy from the East. The bureaucracy of Western Germany denies to accept him as a political refugee. But the poet Heinrich Böll
helps him and Mandl becomes his secretary. Böll also helps him to plan the escape of his wife Slavi from Ostrava. During a visit of Heinrich Böll in Prague Böll smuggles the wife of Mandl in his car through the border. Now both want to start a new life in the United States of America. Slavi Mandl is an excellent piano player; both are performing concert programmes together. In the United States Slavi Mandl works immediately as a piano player and teacher for music. For Herbert Thomas Mandl it is not so easy to get some work. In Seattle in the state Washington he works in a psychiatry. Both are coming back to Germany and stay now in Meerbusch near Düsseldorf. Slavi Mandl works as a teacher for piano and with the help of Heinrich Böll Mandl becomes a teacher at a school. For the world premiere of the play “The Inquiry” of Peter Weiss
about the trial of Auschwitz in Frankfurt. Herbert Thomas Mandl works as a witness on the direction the play. The communistic government of the Czechoslovakia deprives his doctor in philosophy; he gets it back in the nineties of the 20th century. Mandl died on February 22, 2007.
; camera: Robert Schabus; editor: Erich Heyduck. A DVD exists in English and German Language.
Herbert Thomas Mandl
Herbert Thomas Mandl was a Czechoslovak-German-Jewish author, concert violinist, professor of music, philosopher, inventor and lecturer...
, a survivor of the Holocaust.
Plot
The composer Pavel HaasPavel Haas
Pavel Haas was a Czech composer who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was an exponent of Leoš Janáček's school of composition, and also utilized elements of folk music and jazz. Although his output was not large, he is notable particularly for his song cycles and string quartets.-Pre-war:Haas...
makes a bow after the performance of his composition “Study For String Orchestra” conducted by Karel Ančerl
Karel Ancerl
Karel Ančerl , was a Czech conductor, known for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers...
at Terezín 1944. That photo is a stand by photo shot during the set of the propaganda film “A Documentary About The Jewish Settlement” about Theresienstadt (film)
Theresienstadt (film)
Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet was a black and white projected Nazi propaganda film shot in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt....
. A member of that orchestra and also be seen on that photo is the violin player Herbert Thomas Mandl. He is a real witness of the 20th century. He was born in 1926 at Bratislava, his father Daniel Mandl
Daniel Mandl
Daniel Mandl was a civil engineer, inventor, a student of anthroposophy.- Life :Daniel Mandl was born in Prostějov, Moravia. He studied engineering at the University of Vienna, Austria. During World War I, he commanded an artillery unit of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and fought in Albania. A...
served for the artillery of the army of the Austrian-Hungarian Army at the Albanian front. At his childhood Mandl is in Ostrava and Brno and he gets education in playing the violin. After the occupation of the Nazis he and the family must go to the ghetto of Prague and will be later deported to the concentration camp of Terezín, which is used by the Nazis for propaganda. There he met the composer Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann
Viktor Ullmann was a Silesia-born Austrian, later Czech composer, conductor and pianist of Jewish origin.- Biography :...
, Ullmann is now his teacher and conductor. Mandl is member of different orchestras in Terezín as in the string orchestra of
Karel Ančerl and also in the missed musical work “Villon” composed and conducted by Viktor Ullmann at Terezín. Deportation to Auschwitz. Death march together with his father to the concentration camp Dachau
Dachau
Dachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
-Kaufering IV. His father dies in Dachau. Herbert Thomas Mandl survives, he will be not executed at the concentration camp, because a member of the SS refuses to shoot. He sees the liberation of the camp by the US-Army. After the war Mandl works as a professor for violin at the academy in Ostrava. During the Cold War he comes in conflict with the regime. Unbelievable escape as a tourist to the American Embassy in Cairo and imprisoned in Egypt. Flight to Greece in a camp of the CIA and interrogations there. Mandl comes to Western Germany, people of the secret service believes he is a spy from the East. The bureaucracy of Western Germany denies to accept him as a political refugee. But the poet Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...
helps him and Mandl becomes his secretary. Böll also helps him to plan the escape of his wife Slavi from Ostrava. During a visit of Heinrich Böll in Prague Böll smuggles the wife of Mandl in his car through the border. Now both want to start a new life in the United States of America. Slavi Mandl is an excellent piano player; both are performing concert programmes together. In the United States Slavi Mandl works immediately as a piano player and teacher for music. For Herbert Thomas Mandl it is not so easy to get some work. In Seattle in the state Washington he works in a psychiatry. Both are coming back to Germany and stay now in Meerbusch near Düsseldorf. Slavi Mandl works as a teacher for piano and with the help of Heinrich Böll Mandl becomes a teacher at a school. For the world premiere of the play “The Inquiry” of Peter Weiss
Peter Weiss
Peter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance....
about the trial of Auschwitz in Frankfurt. Herbert Thomas Mandl works as a witness on the direction the play. The communistic government of the Czechoslovakia deprives his doctor in philosophy; he gets it back in the nineties of the 20th century. Mandl died on February 22, 2007.
Questions and Answers
In the film Herbert Thomas Mandl gives answers to the following questions:- About the music and the rehearsal of the opera “The Emperor of Atlantis Or The Disobidiene of Death” by Viktor Ullmann, composed 1943 / 1944 at Terezín.
- About the end of the rehearsals of “The Emperor of Atlantis Or The Disobidience of Death” and why the emperor in the opera of Ullmann cannot be seen as Hitler.
- About the world premiere of the melodramatic piece „The Lay of Love and Death of The Cornet Christoph Rilke“ composed by Viktor Ullmann at Terezín.
- Place and date of the world premiere of “The Lay of Love and Death of The Cornet Christoph Rilke”.
- Place of the rehearsals of the opera by Ullmann “The Emperor of Atlantis Or The Disobidience of Death”.
- About the management of the rehearsals of the opera “The Emperor of Atlantis Or The Disobidience of Death” and the leisure time („Freizeitgestaltung“) at Terezín.
- The set of the propaganda film “A Documentary About The Jewish Settlement”. Theresienstadt (film)Theresienstadt (film)Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet was a black and white projected Nazi propaganda film shot in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt....
- About Kurt GerronKurt GerronKurt Gerron was a German Jewish actor and film director.-Life:Born Kurt Gerson into a well-off merchant family in Berlin, he initially studied medicine but was called up for military service in World War I. Seriously wounded he qualified as a military doctor of the German Army...
, the director of the propaganda film and the visit of the Red Cross at Terezín 1944. - The meaning of the word „Transport“.
Sequel
The film was produced in 2007 by ARBOS - Company for Music and Theatre in Austria. Interview and director: Herbert GantschacherHerbert Gantschacher
Herbert Gantschacher is an Austrian director and producer and writer.- Education :...
; camera: Robert Schabus; editor: Erich Heyduck. A DVD exists in English and German Language.