Krása and Hoffmeister wrote the opera in 1938 for a government competition,Pearce, Joe Brundibár at Theresienstadt: A People's Struggle to Maintain a Level of Musical Culture in the Face of Imminent Peril Opera Quarterly (1994) 10 (4): 39-50 but the competition was later cancelled due to political developments. Rehearsals started in 1941 at the Jewish orphanage in Prague, which served a temporary educational facility for children separated from their parents by the war. In the winter of 1942 the opera was first performed at the orphanage for a limited audience of 150 people: by this time, composer Krása and set designer František Zelenka had already been transported to Theresienstadt. By July 1943, nearly all of the children of the original chorus and the orphanage staff had also been transported to Theresienstadt. Only the librettist Hoffmeister was able to escape Prague in time.
