Deceptive Dreams, My Terezin SongsHannah Rachel Lewis (voice) acc. Piano
CD Baby 888295544108
© Copyright - Jonathan Lewis
Ever since I was little, I have been interested in the Holocaust. My parents never tried to shelter me from the truth, so I learned about what happened during the Holocaust at a young age. I was intrigued and read many books about it.
When I was eight, I learned about Brundibar, a show that was put on by the Jewish children in Terezin. The Nazis had the children perform it for the Red Cross as part of a hoax - a plan to trick the world into believing that Jews were being treated well by Germans.
About 150,000 Jews were imprisoned in Terezin. 15,000 of these prisoners were children. Less than 100 of these children survived the war - the rest were murdered or died from starvation and illness. The memory of the Terezin children inspire this work.
Their poetry, written mostly be teenagers, is the source for the lyrics for nearly all the songs in this collection. I hope these songs help children and teens understand what it is like to be oppressed and dehumanized so that nothing like this will ever happen again.