Chris writes: ‘I have made Kaddish: The Holocaust Memorial on behalf of the Australian War Memorial primarily as a cultural recovery project and, along with other past Requiems, as a demonstration of the cultural cost of war.

This concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will be an opportunity for remembrance and reflection, 80 years on. These stories will be told through music, projected images and narrations so as to create a lasting musical memorial. Together we will shine a light on the broad ranging outcomes of the Holocaust in Europe during World War II, as well as how Australia responded and how it was altered by the wave of refugees.

We will also commemorate the greatest loss of Jewish composers, musicians, singers, artists and actors in history* in October 1944 (80 years ago) when they were transported from the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz following an inspection by three delegates from the International Red Cross and the completion of a propaganda film.

I have spent 30 years exploring these composers, tracking down manuscripts and performing them. For the Overture, we have commissioned both Elena Kats-Chernin AO and William Barton to write works to tell the story of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) and William Cooper’s March which tells the story of the Australian Aboriginal League’s protest petition.

The recordings from this concert will become a national and international musical legacy that we hope will bring solace and peace to those affected.

I’m going to tell these stories accurately, fairly and proportionally in this memorable and unique ‘one-off’ concert in Melbourne on Thursday, 31 October 2024, which I invite you to attend.

*Composers: Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása, James Simon, Gideon Klein, Carlo Taube, Karel Svenk, Leo Strauss, Ilse Weber;

Artists: Bedrich Fritta, Leo Haas, Felix Bloch, Otto Ungar, Peter Kien, Charlotte Buresova, Malva Schalek, Karel Fleischmann, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis;

Conductors: Karel Ancerl, Rafael Schachter;

Actor / director Kurt Gerron;

The children who sang in the opera Brundibar.