'' A Child of Our Time '' is a secular oratorio by the British composer Michael Tippett ( 1905 – 1998 ) , who also wrote the libretto . Composed between 1939 and 1941 , it was first performed at the Adelphi Theatre , London , on 19 March 1944 . The work was inspired by events that affected Tippett profoundly : the assassination in 1938 of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee , and the Nazi government 's reaction in the form of a violent pogrom against its Jewish population — called Kristallnacht . Tippett 's oratorio deals with these incidents in the context of the experiences of oppressed people generally , and carries a strongly pacifist message of ultimate understanding and reconciliation . The text 's recurrent themes of shadow and light reflect the Jungian psychoanalysis which Tippett underwent in the years immediately before writing the work
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
A Child of Our Time