Edgar Krasa, Survivor Who Sang In Theresienstadt Chorus, Dies At 95
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
BOSTON (JTA) — Edgar Krasa, a Holocaust survivor who sang in the Theresienstadt concentration camp’s chorus, has died.
His death Monday was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Defiant Requiem Foundation, which performs the music created by inmates at Theresienstadt (also known as Terezin). Krasa, who had moved to Boston with his family in the 1960s, was 95.
The Theresienstadt chorus was led by the Czech-born composer Rafael Schachter, who was Krasa’s bunkmate. In June 1944, the chorus performed Verdi’s “Requiem” before an audience that included high-ranking Nazi officials and a small number of representatives from the International Red Cross.
“Edgar provided living testimony to the extraordinary events that unfolded in Rafael Schachter’s choir at Terezin,” said Murry Sidlin, the foundation’s president.
Krasa, a native of Czechoslovakia, was sent with his family from their home in Prague to Thereseinstadt. He also survived Auschwitz.
In the 1950s, he and his late wife, Hannah, also a survivor of Theresienstadt, made their way to Israel. In Boston, Krasa served as the food services director for the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center.
Krasa and other surviving members of the chorus were interviewed in the 2012 documentary “Defiant Requiem.”
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