Vladimír Helfert was an important Czech

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

 musicologist in the interwar period. Although his early career as a music critic was clouded by the negative influence of his teacher, Zdeněk Nejedlý

Zdenek Nejedlý

Zdeněk Nejedlý was a Czech musicologist, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century...

, with whom he studied at Charles University. After accepting a post in 1922 as professor of musicology

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

 at Masaryk University

Masaryk University

Masaryk University is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the third Czech university , it now consists of nine faculties and 42,182 students...

 in Brno

Brno

Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

, he went against Nejedlý's teachings and championed the music of Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

. His greatest work, Česká moderní hudba. Studie o české hudební tvořivosti (Czech Modern Music: A study of Czech musical creativity, 1936), came under public attack by Nejedlý and his remaining followers. During the Nazi occupation, Helfert became involved with the underground Czechoslovak Communist Party and was arrested for resistance activities. He was interned in Brno's Špilberk Castle

Špilberk Castle

Špilberk Castle is an old castle on the hilltop in Brno, Southern Moravia. It began to be built as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and complete by King Přemyslid Otakar of Bohemia...

 by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 in 1939, and subsequently in Wrocław until 1942. After convalescing he was arrested again in 1944, and held in Prague's Pankrác

Pankrác

Pankrác is a neighborhood of Prague, Czech Republic. It is located south of the city centre on the hills of the right bank of the Vltava River and is part of the Prague 4 district as a deal of Nusle quarter. The name derives from the local baroque initially very old church of St Pancras, which is...

 prison and finally the Theresienstadt concentration camp: his health did not survive the trip back to Prague after liberation.