Dancing on a Powder Keg: The Intimate Voice of a Young Mother and Author, Her Letters Composed in the Lengthening Shadow of the Third Reich; Her Poems from the Theresienstadt Ghetto. - Hardcover

Weber, Ilse

9781933480398: Dancing on a Powder Keg: The Intimate Voice of a Young Mother and Author, Her Letters Composed in the Lengthening Shadow of the Third Reich; Her Poems from the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

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ISBN 10: 1933480394 ISBN 13: 9781933480398

Publisher: Bunim & Bannigan Ltd., 2017

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Dancing on a Powder Keg

Ilse Weber (translation: Michal Schwartz)

Publisher: Bunim & Bannigan Ltd, in association with Yad Vashem.

The Story of ‘Wiegala’ Songstress Ilse Weber – In Her Own Words NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN LETTERS DETAIL A YOUNG MOTHER’S LOVE, SACRIFICE & ARTISTIC LEGACY UNDER THE LENGTHENING SHADOW OF HITLER’S THIRD REICH

Before Hitler’s Third Reich annexed and occupied Czechoslovakia, Ilse Weber was a young wife and working mother of two living in her ancestral town of V�tkovice, known throughout the German-speaking world for her extraordinary songs, theatre pieces, and books for children. A gifted poet, musician, and writer, following the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Ilse and her husband, Willi, were able to get their oldest son, Hanuš, to safety via a ‘Kindertransport’ to London – where Hanuš would be cared for and protected by the daughter of a Swedish diplomat and friend of Ilse’s, Lilian von L�wenadler.

A carefully translated, painstakingly constructed collection of letters exchanged between Ilse and Lilian during the years 1933-44 while the lengthening shadow of the Nazi regime bore down over Europe, Dancing on a Powder Keg – set for release on January 15, 2017 via publisher Bunim & Bannigan, Ltd. – tells a one-of-a-kind, viscerally powerful story of unique friendship, dire historical circumstance, and the courage of a gifted woman in the face of unimaginable evil.

From Ilse’s time in Prague’s Thersienstadt Ghetto (where she worked in the children’s infirmary, entertaining her young patients with songs on her contraband guitar) to her voluntary transportation to Auschwitz (where she and her son, Tommy, were ultimately killed in the gas chambers in 1944), the publication of Dancing on a Powder Keg has only been made possible by discovery of Ilse’s letters in a London attic. The poems were hidden in Thersienstadt, and later retrieved and preserved by Ilse’s husband, Willi, and son, Hanuš, who were reunited in the autumn of 1945.

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About the Author

Ilse Weber's letters and poems, 1933-1944, record with vivid immediacy the lives of her small family during a time of increasing danger, when Europe descended from peace to the chaos of war and genocide. Ilse wrote to her Swedish friend, Lilian, who lived in London, and from 1939, also to her older son whom the Webers sent to Lilian on a Kindertransport. In 1942, Ilse, her husband and younger son, were deported to the Thersienstadt ghetto. Working there in the children's infirmary, Ilse eased the daily suffering of her patients and fellow inmates with songs she wrote and set to music, accompanying herself on her contraband guitar. These more than 60 songs and poems that trace Ilse's last years, have been performed by various artists and ensembles from around the world, having become symbols of ghetto life under Nazi occupation.Ilse Weber was born in 1903 in Vitkovice, in northern Czechoslovakia. A Jewish poet, she wrote in German and published children's books and radio scripts. In 1930 she married Willi Weber. In 1931 she gave birth to her first son, Hanus, and in 1934 to Tommy. In 1938, Hitler's Third Reich annexed V�tkovice and soon after, it occupied all of Czechoslovakia. In the spring of 1939, the Webers sent Hanus with a Kindertransport to England. In 1942, Ilse, Willi and Tommy were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Ilse worked there with sick children, and in 1944, as the entire infirmary was deported, she refused to abandon the children and voluntarily registered to the transport to Auschwitz, where she and her younger son were murdered. Ilse's husband survived and retrieved her poems. The letters were fortuitously discovered decades later, when a London attic was emptied.AUTHOR HOME: Vitkovice / Prague, Czechoslovakia

From the Inside Flap

From the back cover: "The literature about Theresienstadt (Terezin) and the fate of Czech Jewry during the Holocaust is voluminous, but Ilse Weber's story is unique. A tremendously gifted young woman, a poetess and musician, a son who is rescued to Britain and Sweden, a devoted husband, and many of whose wonderful poems have been miraculously rescued, form a unique testimony. Ilse Weber worked as a nurse in a children's sick-room in Theresienstadt, and refused to abandon her charges when they were transported to Auschwitz. Miraculously, again, her last spoken words at the entrance to the gas chamber were preserved. Her husband survived, and her older son finally made this publication possible. I have read many accounts, but this account by someone who did not survive, and whose story has been reconstructed, is exceptional." -- Prof. Yehuda Bauer, academic adviser to Yad Vashem, academic adviser to the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research, and senior adviser to the Swedish Government on the International Forum on Genocide Prevention. In 1998, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for "history of the Jewish people," primarily in connection with his Holocaust studies. Of the numerous reviews for Ilse Weber's letters and poems' German edition, below is a translated selection of the most significant German-language newspapers: "...Ilse's charismatic and helpful personality made these poems not only popular, but for many inmates they became more important than 'water and bread,' as they restored their courage to face life, pride and hope...the book's story and the fate of its protagonists, finally wrested from oblivion...is absolutely touching...it necessitates a filming of Ilse Weber's life...it must be recognized by future generations as one of the most important testimonies of the Shoa." -- Florian Hunger, Judische Zeitung "...with her smuggled guitar, this charismatic woman made music secretly half night through ...Ilse became a legendary figure among the survivors of Theresienstadt." --Oliver Pfohlmann, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, "Reading these [letters ] today one remains speechless. Likewise the straightforward and visually expressive poems. They present themselves without flourish and embellishment, and for that they are gripping." -- Roland Maurer, Der Kleine Bund, Zuruch "...even today, 60 years after the horrible events...Ilse Weber's letters and poems... manifest the fate of an individual in dark times get 'under our skin.'" --Hugo Ernst Kaufer, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung."Letters written to a best friend are something very personal...One confides things one doesn't dare say loud, one is even afraid to think...I read Ilse's letters and at times couldn't hold back the tears: not because this young, educated woman was maudlin, but because I could not stop the calamity. To hope that the course of events would suddenly change is of course naive...but one must have hope when we get so close to this woman, get to know her..." --Stefanie Nannen, Hamburger Abendblatt.

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