About the creation

Testimony for two flutes is based on the evidence given by a witness in the Eichmann Trial: "After one of the periodic deportation raids on the Warsaw Ghetto, a woman discovered her three sons in a truck conveying children to the gas chambers. She pleaded with the officer in charge to set her children free and he, with a smile, agreed to let her take one of them. The three boys were stretching out their arms to her, as if imploring - 'take me!' and the mother, unable to decide which to choose, was forced to watch the truck as it carried all three away to their bitter fate".

The Work (which was first performed in Jerusalem in 1962) is based on three motives - each child crying "take me!" - and ends unresolved. The message it carries is: unless mankind can put a stop to the unending chain of hate begetting hate, the whole human race may be extinguished as were the innocent victims of the past.