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Wiegala: Ilse Weber

Soloist: Kiley Hazelton USC Thornton Recital Choir Conductor: Daniel Newman-Lessler Ilse Weber (1903-1944) Wiegala Ilse Herlinger Weber was born on January 11, 1903 in Vitkovice, near the Moravian town of Ostrava. Vitkovice was culturally diverse. Czechs, Poles, Hungarians and Jews lived in relative harmony, except for the ethnic tension and poverty left over from the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weber grew up in a middle class family. As a young girl, she learned to sing and play guitar, lute, mandolin and balalaika, however, her father, who was an innkeeper, discouraged her from pursuing music professionally. Rather than give up on artistic expression altogether, Weber exchanged performing for less public forms of art such as writing poetry and stories, composing songs, and translating Czech poetry into German. Despite her father’s opposition, Weber achieved early success as an artist. Her works began to be published in the late 1920s. Her most popular book was Mendel Rosenbusch: Tales for Jewish Children. In 1929, she married Willi Weber, and between 1929 and 1934, they had two sons, Hanuš and Tommy. Their happiness was short-lived. In 1938, the Weber family fled to Prague to escape the Nazi’s and sent eight-year-old Hanuš to friends in Sweden. The rest of the family was captured and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. Weber worked as a night nurse in the Theresienstadt children’s hospital and wrote poetry, stories, and music during the day. She would perform her works for the children and other prisoners to bring some light, warmth, and beauty into an otherwise hellish environment. According to Ruth Elias, who became a close friend of Weber’s in Terezin, Ilse would sing and accompany herself, most likely on a guitar that a sympathetic Czech officer had smuggled in. Her husband, Willi, was scheduled to be deported to Auschwitz in October 1944. Just before being deported from Theresienstadt, he gathered his wife’s songs, poems, stories, and other papers, and hid them under the floor of a tool shed. In addition to Willi, children from the hospital where Ilse worked were also being deported to Aushwitz. Ilse volunteered to go with her husband and the hospital children, taking Tommy with her, in a desperate attempt to keep everyone together. Weber, Tommy, and the children were murdered upon arrival in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Willi survived Auschwitz and several more concentration camps. Once the camps were liberated and the war was over, he went back to the shed in Theresienstadt, and found that his hidden documents had survived. Hanuš also survived, and as of 2012, is alive and well. Ilse Weber wrote approximately sixty poems while imprisoned in Thersienstadt, many of which, she set to simple, folk-like music. The language of the poetry is deceptively beautiful; often using coded imagery to describe the ugliness that took place in the ghettos and camps. Wiegela is one of three songs by Weber that exists in autograph. The word “Wiegala” is similar to “Viglid" (Yiddish) and “Wieganlied” (German), both of which translate to “lullaby.” The manuscript is kept in the collections at Yad Vashem. Weber only transcribed the melody and text, no harmonies or accompaniment. Wiegala is in 3⁄4 with dotted rhythms and a falling fifth at the ends of phrases. The music and text are simultaneously soothing and sad. An unidentified friend of the Weber family is recorded as having told Weber before she went into the gas chambers, “I have often heard you sing in the sick ward. Enter the gas chambers as fast as you can. Sit down with the children and start singing. Sing what you have always sung with them. This way, you will inhale the gas more quickly. Otherwise, you’ll be trampled to death once everyone starts to panic.” It is strongly believed that this is the song Ilse Weber sang to the children in the gas chambers, however, we cannot know for sure. Wiegala, wiegala, weier, der wind spielt auf der Leier. Er spielt so süß im grünen Ried, die Nachtigall, die singt ihr Lied. Wiegala, wiegala, weier, der Wind spielt uaf der Leier. Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Laterne, er steht am dunklen Himmelszelt und schaut hernieder auf die Welt. Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Laterne. Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stille! Es stört kein Laut die süße Ruh, schlaf, mein Kindchen, schlaf auch du. Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stille! Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, the wind plays on the lyre, It plays so sweet in the green marsh, the nightingale who sings her song. Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, the wind plays on the lyre. Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, the moon is the lantern, he shines in the darkened firmament and looks down at the world. Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, the moon is the lantern. Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, why is the world so quiet! No sound disturbs the sweet rest, sleep, my child, sleep well Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby, why is the world so quiet!