Czech composer Pavel Haas’ career was gaining momentum through the 1930s. A Jewish man, he wrote music for theater, film and the concert hall, and he debuted a well-received opera in 1938.
Nazi Germany occupied a large swath of the former Czechoslovakia that year and by the end of 1939 swallowed up the rest of the country.
Nazis banned the performance of Haas’ music because of his religion and forbade him to work. But he continued writing music — even after being imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp and ghetto…