A leading Czech children's choir is visiting a Hampstead Garden Suburb school this week to perform an operetta that became a symbol of hope at a Czech concentration camp.

Brundibar (meaning Bumblebee) will be performed for the first time in English on Friday at the Henrietta Barnett School in Central Square by the Czech choir Jiskricka (meaning Little Sparks).

School musicians will participate in the performances at 11am and 2pm before an audience including children from other schools. A 40-minute film about the Theresienstadt camp is also due to be shown during the event.

The operetta was written by a Jewish man, Hans Krasa, in 1938 and tells the story of two good children who want to buy milk to save their sick mother.

Along the way they triumph over a bullying organ grinder Brundibar who steals their money with the connivance of a policeman. It is an allegory of their struggle against the Nazis and was performed more than 50 times to keep the children's hopes up in the Theresienstadt ghetto, near Prague, which was home to the notorious concentration camp.

Apparently it was allowed by the Nazis because the German guards did not understand the Czech language.

The children of Jiskricka are from the town of Uhrineves near Prague whose Jewish community was deported and killed by the Nazis at Theresienstadt between 1942-45.

A 16th century Torah scroll which belonged to that community is held by the concert organisers, Finchley Reform Synagogue in Fallow Court Avenue, North Finchley.

Last October, 20 members of the synagogue took part in the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the site of the Uhrineves synagogue.

November 5, 2001 16:25

LEIGH COLLINS