Ilse Weber: A Spiritual and Musical Force

During World War II, the musician and poet brought hope and joy to children in a concentration camp infirmary.

A compilation photo of Czech author and songwriter Ilse Herlinger with her lute; (Kingston Ostrava Scroll Group/Jewish Museum, Prague) and her debut book, which featured her own anthology of original folk stories, 1928.

“It is, after all, amazing, how much my bit of music making helps. … When I come and sit down with my guitar, my table is immediately surrounded and there is singing.” In April 1941, writer and musician Ilse Weber wrote those words in a letter sent to her son, Hanus, from Theresienstadt, a Nazi ghetto in Terezin, Czechoslovakia. The camp and its prisoners were often used by the Nazis for propagandistic purposes in an attempt to discredit those highlighting the grim living conditions of concentration camps and ghettos.

In the early years of World War II, Ilse volunteered at the concentration camp children’s infirmary, putting her love of words and music to good to help care for children whose families had been deported to the ghetto after Hitler’s rise to power and the establishment of Nazi Germany.

Ilse’s own journey would lead to years spent in one of Germany’s most notorious concentration camps. But her dedication to creativity and her ability to use her artistic gifts to comfort and uplift those around her remained a steady force.

Though it has been 80 years since the Holocaust, the music created by Jewish artists imprisoned in concentration camps remains a healing light emerging from one of the world’s darkest periods. Ilse’s poems and songs are an integral part of this important and illuminating history.

A Love of Writing and Folk Tales

Ilse Herlinger (1903–1944) was born in Ostrava, a city located in former Czechoslovakia, to parents Therese and Moritz. Her mother was a talented singer who focused on raising her children full time.

Early on, Ilse proved herself to be a talented poet, lute player, and storyteller. Her mother became a figure of inspiration for many of her creative works. Therese acted as a guide while Ilse honed her skills as a multi-instrumentalist. A few instruments she enjoyed playing besides the lute included the guitar and mandolin.

When Isle was 10 years old, her father passed away. She turned to her artistry to help grieve, with folklore and its many tales becoming a great influence. As a teen, her original stories and poems were printed in various magazines including the German newspaper for girls, The Garland (Das Kränzchen). As a young woman of Jewish descent who spoke both Czech and German fluently, her social circles featured a mixture of people across cultures.

At 25, she published her debut book, which featured her own anthology of original folk stories.

According to the Jewish Museum Berlin, “Jewish Tales for Children” received positive reviews from various publications after it was published in 1928. Critics “praised the author’s ‘long-acting educational artworks’ that describe the ‘spirit of Jewish benevolence’ and the ‘beauty of family life.’”

Cover of the 1932 second edition of “Judische Kindermarchen" ("Jewish Tales for Children") by Ilse Herlinger and designed by Gre (Grete) Edelstein. Jewish Museum Berlin. Public Domain

The museum also noted the book’s unique spiritual angle while staying true to traditional family values and universal lessons. It remarked:

“Unlike in the Children’s and Household Tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Herlinger’s stories do not feature witches or ghosts. Instead, the Prophet Elijah—who embodies God’s close connection to his people—makes occasional appearances.”

Germany Occupies Czechoslovakia

Two years after publishing her first book, she married Wilhelm, nicknamed “Willi,” Weber. The couple had two sons, the older Hanus and Tomas, who was affectionately referred to as “Tommy.”

Wilhelm (L) and Ilse with an old miner at the Louis Pit, 1929. (Kingston Ostrava Scroll Group/Jewish Museum, Prague).

In the fall of 1938, the area in Czechoslovakia where the Weber family resided was taken over by German troops. Work opportunities for Jewish people became harder to find, creating financial strain for many families. Ilse and her husband thought about fleeing to Palestine.

Instead, they chose to move to Prague, an area of Czechoslovakia not yet occupied by Germany. Less than a year later though, the Weber family faced another relocation. In March 1939, the rest of Czechoslovakia fell under German occupation.

In February of 1942, Ilse, Wilhelm, and their younger son Tommy were deported to Theresienstadt. Before their deportation, they were able to send Hanus to the UK, where he lived with Ilse’s friend and close pen pal Lilian von Lowenadler. Later, he moved to Sweden to stay with Lowenadler’s mother, Gertrude.

When Isle arrived at the concentration camp, she promptly began helping children patients staying at the infirmary. She came to realize music was a vital part of the young patients’ treatment and healing since medicine was scarce in concentration camps.

Music and art were heavily regulated, but Ilse forged on. Her poetry and songs became “a form of spiritual resistance.” She coordinated secret performances where children could sing along to lullabies and nursery rhymes.

An ardent writer in her personal journals, Ilse once reflected on the sense of temporary relief she and others found in the form of music, writing, “Music lights up a poet’s words, from our plight brings release, even the sparest songs of birds bear moments of blessed peace.”

‘Will to Live’

As children began singing her songs when guards weren’t present, and requests came in for her to lead performances in private, Ilse’s tenacity strengthened. A Czech officer smuggled in a guitar for her. She managed to hang it on an inconspicuous wall where SS guards miraculously never caught sight of it.

After the war, Ilse’s husband remarked on the surprising amount of music and poetry she created while imprisoned at the camp. He said, “Theresienstadt was the peak of Ilse’s career as a writer … with her songs and poems, she gave people new hope for a better tomorrow.”

During a 2018 performance in Jerusalem honoring the music of concentration camp victims, vocalist Aviva Bar-On sang one of Ilse’s songs, “When I Was Lying Down.” Bar-On was one of the children Ilse took care of while at Theresienstadt. At the event, she shared that thanks in part to Ilse’s musical gifts, “the musical life of the camp was very rich.”

While at Theresienstadt, Ilse struck up a friendship with fellow camp inmate Ruth Elias. Regarding her friend, Elias once shared:

“We spent unforgettable hours … during which she sang songs. ... Ilse was not only a poet, but also an excellent musician. … I found it incomprehensible how she managed during this terrible time to see so much ugliness, but sometimes also beauty, and describe it so expressively in her verses. … I became witness to her creation.”

Ilse Herlinger playing a lute, 1928. (Kingston Ostrava Scroll Group/Jewish Museum, Prague).

The Theresienstadt concentration camp housed several musicians whose works are still remembered today, including Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann and actor Kurt Gerron.

According to the book “The Third Reich at War,” by Richard Evans, Ilse produced some of the most beautiful and haunting compositions to come from the walls of Theresienstadt. Writer and freelancer CK MacLeod featured an excerpt from the book while covering Ilse’s music.

“Some of the most moving of those compositions were by Ilse Weber, who wrote both music and lyrics and sang them, accompanying herself on a guitar, as she did her night rounds in the children’s ward of the camp hospital, carrying out her duties as a nurse.”

Hanus would later remark that those who survived the concentration camp told him his mother’s music and poetry helped them “retain their will to live.”

From Risk to Renaissance

In 1944, two years after the Webers’ arrival at Theresienstadt, Wilhelm was transferred to another concentration camp, Auschwitz, in Poland. Upon hearing that all of the children of the infirmary would be transported to Auschwitz as well, Ilse made the tough decision to follow them. Her young son Tommy followed as well. Not only did she refuse to leave the children she’d been looking after as they met an uncertain fate, but she also hoped to be reunited with her husband, so she could keep her family somewhat intact.

After arriving at Auschwitz, the children Ilse had spent years nurturing and protecting at the infirmary were quickly sent to a gas chamber. She voluntarily followed them inside with Tommy by her side.

Ilse’s mother, Therese, met the same fate as her daughter and grandson in 1942 when she arrived at an extermination camp, Treblinka, also located in Poland.

Terezie Herlinger and Ilse Weber with sons (L) Hanus and Tommy. (Kingston Ostrava Scroll Group/Jewish Museum, Prague).

Wilhelm was the only one from his immediate family to survive Auschwitz.

Though Ilse didn’t survive Nazi Germany’s network of concentration camps, her music and poetry did. During his time at Theresienstadt, Wilhelm took on duties as a gardener. Because of his access to wider territory than most, he took a great risk and buried many of his wife’s works in the ground under a shed. After the war’s end in 1945, he eventually returned to that very place and excavated her compositions and poems.

This final act of love and dedication to his late wife set off a renaissance of her work.

A Comforting Lullaby

After several years apart, Hanus and his father reconnected in Prague in the fall of 1945. Both men became instrumental in resurrecting Ilse’s works.

Perhaps her best-known composition, “Wiegala,” is a comforting lullaby perfect for singing a child to sleep. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Ilse sang the lullaby to the children, and her own son Tommy, when she voluntarily accompanied them to their final moments in the gas chamber.

The lullaby’s lyrics are nature-driven, detailing the wind playing on a lyre and the moon acting as a lantern.

French violinist Esther Abrami poses during a photo session in Paris on Nov. 6, 2023. The violinist has garnered worldwide attention with her rendition of Weber's “Wiegala.”  (JOEL SAGET/Getty Images) 

One of the song’s most moving renditions comes by way of critically-acclaimed classical violinist Esther Abrami, whose instrumental version has garnered hundreds of thousands of views across social media. Her rendition of “Wiegala” also acts as the title track and first single from her latest album, which debuts April 25, 2025.

Cover of the authoritative volume of Ilse’s work "Dancing on a Powder Keg." Bunim & Bannigan Ltd

‘A Symbol of Freedom’

A published guide at Kennesaw State University notes that, “Creating music was an act of cultural and spiritual resistance. According to Yad Vashem … ‘the freedom to sing and compose music could not be totally censored or controlled. Thus, music became a symbol of freedom.’”

The guide also makes note of a famous quote by Holocaust survivor Roman Kent, who once said, “Resistance does not have to be with a gun and a bullet.”

It goes on to say, “Acts of cultural and spiritual resistance were equally important because they gave people hope for the future.”

Thanks to the legacy of Ilse and her lasting works of art, we’re reminded of the hope, strength, and resilience that music and poetry can foster. Thanks to her work, and the lesson of her life, we’re given a lifeline to unbreakable bravery even while facing insurmountable conditions.

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