KLEIN MUSEUM
Gideon Klein was one of the Jewish Czech composers imprisoned in the Nazi transit camp at Terezm in 1941; he spent nearly three years there and died when working in a coal mine near Katowice in January 1945. Born in Prerov, in Moravia, in 1919, he studied the piano and composition at Prague Conservatory and musicology at the Charles University; he was briefly a pupil of Alois Haba. He used 12-note techniques and quarter-tones in some of his works, which include an expressionist piano sonata.
Klein is commemorated in the room devoted to music in the Magdeburg Barracks at Terezm (see KrAsa). He was particularly active in the organization of musical life, supervising the performances of instrumental music, making many adaptations for the available forces, playing the piano as soloist and in supporting roles and composing incidental music for dramatic performances. His compositions in Terezm include a song-cycle Die Pest, to poetry by a fellow inmate, and a Hebrew Lullaby, of which a facsimile is included, with other facsimiles, photographic material and concert programmes, in the display dedicated to him.
