In 1941, Nazis began deporting Jews to the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. An unusually high number of musicians were deported there, to be used for propaganda purposes. This recording offers songs written by inmates of this concentration camp: Adolf Strauss, Viktor Ullman, Carlo Taube, Ilse Weber, Gideon Klein, and James Simon, as well as by Norbert Glanzbert, who survived WWII by hiding in unoccupied France until 1944, and went on to compose...

Program of music, mostly cabaret and art songs, written within the confines of the camp. The liner note explains in brief the situation and fate of each composer. These scant details effectively compound the tragic ironies but definitely leave us wanting to hear more of the fascinating and horrible collective tale. But the sparseness works on the music's behalf, for it sends us back to the songs themselves to learn more.