Composer. His short fairy tale opera "Brundibar" (1938, revised 1943), written for children, is probably the most celebrated composition to emerge from the Holocaust. The tragic provenance of this work and the quirky charm of Krasa's music have given it lasting popular and historical interest. Krasa was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Reublic), into a respected German-Jewish family. After studying at Prague's German Music Academy, and privately with composers Alexander Zemlinsky and Albert Roussel, he came to attention with "Four Orchestral Songs" (1920). His Symphony (1923) was played in Boston under Serge Koussevitsky, while George Szell conducted the premiere of his prize-winning opera "Betrothal in a Dream" (1933). In these the French Neo-Classical style of "Les Six" is evident, spiced with saucy dissonances and a penchant for the grotesque. Lyricism was paramount. "My music is strictly founded on the concept of accessible melodic character", he wrote. In the early 1930s Krasa was a vocal anti-fascist and formed a close friendship with like-minded artist and playwright Adolf Hoffmeister, which bore initial fruit in the theatre piece "Youth at Play" (1935). "Brundibar", their next collaboration, was written for a 1938 state competition that was cancelled due to the deteriorating political situation in Czechoslovakia. Hoffmeister's story was of folk-like simplicity: Two fatherless moppets, Aninka and Pepicek, have no money to buy milk for their sick mother, so they try to raise it by singing in the town square. Brundibar, a bullying organ-grinder, resents the competition and has a policeman chase them away. With the help of a bird, a dog, and a cat, the siblings gather the local children into a mighty choir. Even the cop is impressed, and Brundibar is run out of town. Aninka and Pepicek return home in triumph to make their mother well again. After 1939 the Nazis barred all Czech-Jewish artists from public activity, and "Brundibar" was first given clandestinely at Prague's Jewish Orphanage in 1942. By then Krasa had been deported to the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp. There he joined conductor Karel Ancerl and composers Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, and Viktor Ullmann in establishing a remarkable musical community under horrific conditions. He composed the "Passacaglia and Fugue" for string trio (1943), the "Overture for Small Orchestra" (1944), and a few songs during his internment, as well as other works that were lost. When the children and staff of the Jewish Orphanage arrived at Theresienstadt in 1943, Krasa reconstructed the score of "Brundibar" for available resources and it was performed there 55 times, making it the only frequently heard work by a Jewish musician sanctioned in Nazi-occupied Europe. The opera's fetching tunes, humor, and message of good triumphing over evil brought precious moments of comfort to its oppressed listeners. Perhaps because it was ostensibly created for children the Germans missed its subversive undertones. (Among the inmates it was understood that Brundibar was a caricature of Hitler). On June 23, 1944, the camp commandant ordered a special staging of the piece for representatives of the Red Cross, in a sadly successful effort to persuade them that Theresienstadt was a model "Jewish resettlement". Part of this performance was recorded in the infamous propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Presents a Town to the Jews" (1944). The composer can be glimpsed sitting in the audience. Four months later nearly everyone involved in the production was sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz, including Krasa. "Brundibar" survives as his testament. Since then it has been presented around the world and translated into several languages. An English adaptation by Maurice Sendak and Tony Kushner premiered at the Chicago Opera Theatre in 2003 and was also published as a picture book.