Holocaust Education Committee of the Quad Cities

ArtsPower will return to the Quad Cities with a production of “My Heart in a Suitcase” on Tuesday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 1, 2019. School venues to be announced.

Summary: Anne Lehmann and her family no longer feel safe in their Berlin home. Life in 1938 Germany is deteriorating quickly for the Lehmanns and all Jews living there. In order to protect their daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Lehmann may have to say goodbye to her forever. Anne must struggle to bring meaning out of despair, to cling to love and hope even in a world that seems filled with hatred and violence. ArtsPower’s gripping and poignant production about Anne and her family’s decision whether or not to send her on the Kindertransport is a tribute to the strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of a family’s love.

The Night to Honor Israel will be held at 7 PM on Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Moline Gothic Temple New Hope Church (2305 7th Ave., Moline, IL). Free to the public. For more information.

Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos, an American historian and author of three books including Royals and the Reich, returns to the Quad Cities this October and will present on the fate of looted art during WWII. He will present at the Figge Art Museum (225 W 2nd St, Davenport, IA) on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 5 PM. Admission is $35 per person.

A second presentation will be held at the German American Heritage Center (712 W 2nd St, Davenport, IA) on Monday, Oct. 22 at 6:30 PM. This special talk is a ticketed event priced at $20 for GAHC members and $25 for non-members.

Dr. Petropoulos presented in 2017 at Augustana College on the “Real (and Reel) Monuments Men.”

For more information on the upcoming presentations:
German American Heritage Center:  On Monday, October 22 @ 6:30 PM we will host the program “Real (and Reel) Monuments Men, the Gurlitt Cache, and the Continuing Challenges of Nazi-Looted Art” with Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos at the German American Heritage Center.  Refreshments will be served and seating is very limited. You may purchase tickets at the GAHC, over the phone, or on Eventbrite.

Figge Art Museum: A Talk with Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos at 5 PM Sunday, Oct. 21. Call 563.345.6642 to register. Join Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos for cocktails and dinner, followed by his presentation of “From Patronage to Nazi Plunder: French Modern Art and the Jews. A Complicated History.” Dr. Petropoulos is the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College in California. His talk will examine inextricable link between the rise of modernism in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century and Jewish cultural accomplishment. This program is possible thanks to the generous support of the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities.

The Brundibár opera is coming to Augustana College in November. Performances will be November 16 at 7:30 p.m., and November 17 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on Augustana’s website.

The Augustana Chamber Orchestra joins Opera@Augustana and the Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble in a performance of “Brundibár,” a children’s opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása.

“Brundibár” was written in 1938 but was not performed until 1942 when it premiered at the Vinohrady Jewish Boy’s Orphanage in the Prague ghetto.

Krása had already been sent to the Terezín concentration camp where he was the musical director of the Freizeitgestaltung, a group of prisoners tasked with organizing cultural activities for the camp.

When the conductor of the original Prague production was sent to Terezín himself, he smuggled in a piano score to “Brundibár.” From this and his own memory, Krása reconstructed the opera, taking into account the performing forces available to him in the camp.

Beginning with a performance on July 23, 1943, “Brundibár” was performed 55 times in the Terezín camp over the course of the next year and a performance was central to an International Red Cross visit to the camp in June 1944, during which the visiting delegation was deceptively shown a healthy and happy Jewish population.

As the war was nearing its close, Krása was taken on a transport that left Terezín on Oct. 16, 1944, and he was killed in a gas chamber at Auschwitz two days later.

For more information.

Date: April 1 & Oct. 1 (bi-annual deadline)
Event: Rauch Foundation Teacher Scholarship for Professional Development in Holocaust Education
Application: Rauch Foundation Scholarship(1)