Jerusalemhem Volume 87, October 2018
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Yad VaJerusalemhem Volume 87, October 2018 “Generation to Generation” International Mission 2018 (pp. 4-5) “It Came from Within” New Online Exhibition Marking 80 Years since Kristallnacht (pp. 10-11) Yad VaJerusalemhem Contents A people who in its Volume 87, Tamuz 5779, October 2018 “Tears of Anguished Pride” ■ 2-3 darkest of hours Secret Concert at the Kovno Ghetto could raise its eyes Published by: Revived at Yad Vashem “Generation to Generation" ■ 4-5 to culture could International Mission 2018 never be destroyed Education ■ 6-8 ■ Holocaust Education in a World without Survivors ■ 6-7 Chairman of the Council: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau “Time, Place and Relevance” ■ 7 Vice Chairmen of the Council: ■ On 24 July 1943, a concert was held in Tenth International Conference Dr. Yitzhak Arad secret in the Kovno ghetto, marking the Dr. Moshe Kantor on Holocaust Education anniversaries of the deaths of the visionary Chairman of the Directorate: Avner Shalev Graduate Spotlight ■ 8 of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, and the Director General: Dorit Novak Rachel Urowitz, Canada celebrated Hebrew and Yiddish poet Chaim Head of the International Institute for Holocaust New in E-Learning ■ 8 Nahman Bialik. Seventy-five years later almost Research and Incumbent, John Najmann Chair Short Animated Films of Key Historical Concepts for Holocaust Studies: Prof. Dan Michman to the day, this concert was revived in its entirety Chief Historian: Prof. Dina Porat Birthday Gifts from the Shoah ■ 9 at Yad Vashem on the Mount of Remembrance Academic Advisor: New Artifacts Displayed in Visitors Center in Jerusalem. Prof. Yehuda Bauer New Online Exhibition: After its establishment in August 1941, Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate: “It Came from Within” ■ 10-11 the leadership of the Kovno ghetto sought to Shmuel Aboav, Yossi Ahimeir, Daniel Atar, Marking 80 Years since Kristallnacht hearten those who had survived the horrific Matityahu Drobles, Abraham Duvdevani, aktionen by promoting Jewish educational and Erez Eshel, Prof. Boleslaw (Bolek) Goldman, Research ■ 12-15 Vera H. Golovensky, Moshe Ha-Elion, cultural life. In 1942, a group of some of the Adv. Shlomit Kasirer, Yehiel Leket, International Research Workshops ■ 12 most talented musicians in Lithuania turned Baruch Shub, Dalit Stauber, Dr. Zehava Tanne, Familiarity and Murder to the ghetto leadership with the request to Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, Dudi Zilbershlag Revealing Personal Voices ■ 13 hold concerts of Jewish and classical music. THE MAGAZINE Ego-Documents in the Soviet Sphere After deliberation over the appropriateness of during the Holocaust conducting such events in the shadow of so Editor-in-Chief: Iris Rosenberg Biography of an Invisible Survivor ■ 14-15 much suffering and death, the decision was Managing Editor: Leah Goldstein ■ 15 made to ask the Germans for permission. This Editorial Board: “A Sense of Relief” Simmy Allen was granted – on the grounds that it would Podium ■ 16 Deborah Berman “raise the spirit” of the slave laborers, and on Marisa Fine Whitewashing History the proviso that the first performance would be Dana Porath ■ 17 for the German civilian administration. Lilach Tamir-Itach Engraved on a Silver Platter Dana Weiler-Polak Gathering the Fragments ■ 18-19 Susan Weisberg Mirroring Reality Editorial Coordinator: Miri Rabinovich Nissim Language Editor: Leah Goldstein Piecing Together the Puzzle ■ 19 Proofreader: Ezra Olman How Shoah Changed Holocaust Translated by: James Joseph Mclntosh Remembrance ■ 20-21 Assisted by: Alexander Avram, Claude Lanzmann (1925-2018) Shaya Ben Yehuda, Ayala Peretz, News ■ 21-25 Amanda Smulowitz, Martin Sykes-Haas Photography: Yossi Ben-David, Isaac Harari Friends Worldwide ■ 26-31 Production: Ahva Printing Press Company Ltd. The International Institute for Holocaust Design: Stephanie & Ruti Design Research: Publications ■ 32 This magazine was published with the ■ Kovno, Lithuania. The ghetto orchestra assistance of The Azrieli Group. ISSN 0793-7199 The former Slobodka yeshiva was chosen to house the orchestra performances, and in order to ©Articles appearing in this issue may be reprinted with proper acknowledgement. protect the orchestra musicians from deportation and forced labor, they were formally inducted as Yad Vashem’s activities are supported by police officers. In 1947, the Fun Letstn Khurbn the Ministry of Education (The Final Destruction) journal described the effect of the orchestra’s performances – over and The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. 80 in one year – as follows: “Tears fell from ■ On the cover: Holocaust survivor Felice the eyes of the audience members, as well as Zimmern Stokes with Allyson Setton, member from the musicians, as the first chords pierced of the Young Leadership Associates of the American Society for Yad Vashem, during the the silence of the hall. However, these were 2018 International Mission (see pp. 4-5) not tears of sadness; rather, they were tears of 2 “Tears of Anguished Pride” Secret Concert at the Kovno Ghetto Revived at Yad Vashem Leah Goldstein ■ “A Concert Where Everything is Blue (Tchelet)" held at Yad Vashem 75 years after it was performed in secret in the Kovno ghetto | Aranen Productions: Evyatar Nissan joy and anguished pride. A people who in its In 1942, a group of some concert took place at Yad Vashem’s Jewish darkest of hours could raise its eyes to culture Fighters and Partisans Monument. The concert could never be destroyed.” Although moved to of the most talented was performed by the Raanana Symphonette the extreme by the performances, the attendees musicians in Lithuania Orchestra alongside the Ankor Choir – made respected the commonly agreed decision not up of teenage girls studying at the Jerusalem to applaud, in deference to the thousands in turned to the ghetto Academy of Music and Dance – and featured their community being murdered by the Nazis several popular Israeli singers, including Karolina, and their collaborators. leadership with the request Yonatan Razel and Ofir Ben Shitrit. In between In March 1944, during the horrific to hold concerts of Jewish the songs, the story of the secret concert was “Children’s Aktion,” members of the Kovno retold through testimonies, photographs, artifacts underground buried the ghetto’s archives, and classical music and videos from the Yad Vashem Collections. which were discovered two decades later. While At the concert, Yad Vashem Chairman conducting his doctoral research on the Kovno presented content that supported Zionism and Avner Shalev recalled “the enormous strength ghetto, Israeli scholar Rami Neuderfer spent a solidarity. Among the songs played were “Shir of human spirit of the people who cleaved to year-and-a-half perusing the archives. Amongst Ha’emek” (Song of the Valley), “Shir Hanamal” and believed in the Zionist endeavor and wished the 40,000 documents, including hundreds (Song of the Port), “Shir Ma’apilei Betar” (The to express it in every manner possible, under of pages about the Kovno ghetto orchestra, Betar Movement Song), and “Nomi Nomi,” a the harshest of circumstances… Today we show Neuderfer discovered a detailed program of children’s lullaby. Popular Eastern European our appreciation for that strength of spirit, of the secret Zionist performance lauded by the Jewish music was also played, as well as a string the ideas developed by the Zionist movement ghetto leadership as the “crowning glory” of of tunes perceived as Yemenite melodies. The in the hills of Kovno and elsewhere, which in the ghetto’s cultural endeavors, and which one concert concluded with the singing, in Yiddish, the wake of WWII and the Shoah proved to of its initiators had entitled “A Concert Where of “Hatikvah” (The Hope), the anthem of the be the only way to ensure the continuation of Everything is Blue (Tchelet).” future State of Israel. the Jewish people: that is, the State of Israel, The concert program brought together the Under the direction of Neuderfer, and in which came into existence 70 years ago. We various educational and cultural movements cooperation with Israel’s Ministry for Social will do our best to guard this most valuable of that operated in the ghetto at the time, and Equality, the authentic revival of the secret pledges, charged to us all.” 3 “Generation to Generation” International Mission 2018 ■ Members of the 2018 International Mission in Austria of Jewish Vienna from medieval times, through in Jerusalem, a celebratory dinner opening the various struggles they faced, the cultural the Israel leg of the mission began with Yad blossoming of the community and the birth of Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev welcoming the modern Zionism — which began in Vienna — up to esteemed group to Israel. Shalev suggested that and including the destruction of the community one of the most important challenges today is during the Holocaust. Participants had the ensuring that the Holocaust remains relevant privilege of meeting the Chancellor of Austria, to the younger generations. Shalev, who has H.E. Mr. Sebastian Kurz, as well as Austrian placed education at the forefront of Yad Vashem’s parliament members. Touring Vienna with Yad activities, acknowledged that educators need Vashem was a unique and moving experience, to cope with new environments of technology evoking powerful thoughts and feelings about and learning. The main objective, he said, is ■ Left to right: Dorit Novak, Adina Burian, Leonard Wilf, Holocaust survivors Leon Green and the Jewish people — its past, its present and its establishing “meaningful remembrance.”