Viktor Ullmann

1 I 1898, Cieszyn (today’s Poland) — 18 X 1944, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau

Viktor Ullmann was a pianist, composer, and conductor. He was one of the main organizers of musical life in the Terezín ghetto (Theresienstadt) where he composed many works, including the opera The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal.

He was born on 1 January 1898 to a family of assimilated Jews in Cieszyn, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was baptized in the Catholic Church. In 1909, he began to attend a music school in Vienna, where he found a mentor in the avante-garde composer, Arnold Schönberg. Viktor Ullmann served in the military during World War I.

After the war, he began studying law and attended Schönberg’s composition seminar. In 1919, he moved to Prague to devote himself fully to music and work in the New German Theatre. He also worked for Czech Radio and published articles and press reviews while attending the Prague Conservatory.

When Germany annexed Bohemia and Moravia, Viktor Ullmann had to contend with the restrictions imposed on all people of Jewish descent. On 8 September 1942, he was deported to the ghetto in Terezín (Theresienstadt) where he was active in the camp’s cultural life, organizing concerts, playing the piano, and composing such works as the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder die Tod-Verweigerung (‘The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal’). On 16 October 1944, he was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where he died in the gas chamber two days later.