“As a pianist, composer, soprano and music therapist, I have been performing the works of Terezin composers in Turkey and around the world since 2011.

The Theresienstadt Ghetto and Concentration Camp, with its Germanized name, was built during World War II as part of Adolf Hitler's “Final Solution” plan to exterminate the Jewish race because he believed that it disrupted the hierarchical structure of the world. Among the thousands of camps he built, this one was used as a propaganda camp against the world. 

In this camp, where living conditions were extremely bad and especially the “dehumanization” method was used, some brave composers continued to make their own music and keep the spirit of solidarity alive in the camp. This is what I call Positive Resilience. In order to share this concept with students, I wrote my “Positive Resistance with Holocaust Reality” training. Since 2016, I have been giving this training to non-Jewish youth in Turkey and abroad.

As a continuation of this, I started a student movement called “March of the Music” to take young people to Terezin. There is only one condition that I set for the students on this trip, I want a product from them after the trip and then I make sure that these products are played, published and printed around the world. Because for me, meeting the productive spirit within us and keeping it alive, finding our own unique sound, is the main condition for peace.” Renan Koen

Presented by Renan Koen