A Tale of Two Anthems for the 70Th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

44 Pages Thursday, May 23, 2013 14 Sivan, 5773 $1.25 A tale of two anthems For the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Eli Rubenstein a group of Polish and Jewish prisoners ered in the elegant space of the Polish the music being heard, were not being being led to the slaughter. A Polish girl opera house, celebrating their once glori- used as an instrument of division, domi- rom all the tragic experiences left the group and asked the Sonderkom- ous past, and pledging to work to build a nation or humiliation. Nor were they be- of the war and the Holocaust, mando prisoners to tell her people that better future. ing listened to only or primarily for their “Fthere is one lesson to be learned: she and her comrades had died a hero’s Indeed, the lyrical sounds of their dif- esthetic beauty and value. The music’s that is there is nothing more valuable than death. The Poles sang their national an- ferent anthems mingled together – no essential function that evening was the human life. Nobody, in any situation, has them, while the Jews sang Hatikvah. “A longer part of a “terrible and cruel fate,” sacred memorialization of loss, and the the right to take it away. terrible and cruel fate has ordained that but within a mutual pledge for harmony, bridging of national and cultural divides “To this day, the world had not drawn the lyrical sounds of these different an- brotherhood and respect for each other through the healing power of the arts. conclusions from this horrible crime, thems mingle in this accursed corner of and all humanity. True art can soar above time, space and which was done in the very heart of Eu- the globe,” Langfuss observed. And what did the orchestra choose to origin, touching those whose hearts sin- rope in the 20th century. Now, almost three-quarters of a cen- play? Beethoven. Surely, they could have cerely yearn for transcendence and in- “The words ‘war never more’ still don’t chosen something spiration, the potential for which lies in mean much, but we have to remember else. Chopin. Men- every human being and society. and we have to repeat to ourselves that delsohn. Perhaps the That evening and the next day, we saw human life is holy. Perhaps the people will evening's organizers remarkable expressions of Polish and hear. did this purposely. Jewish unity. This does not erase the diffi- “After us our children will come here, In many places un- cult moments in our history, the antisem- and our children’s children, and they will der Nazi rule, Jews itism that has afflicted relations between keep repeating, ‘War never more,’ because were prohibited from our people, in varying degrees, over the human life is holy.” playing the music of centuries and has not yet been entirely Thus spoke Simcha “Kazik” Rotem, the German composers, overcome in Poland or almost anywhere last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto lest they “contami- else in the world. Uprising, on April 19, the 70th Anniversa- nate” the great Ger- But the events in Warsaw were a cause ry of the uprising. His remarks were deliv- man masterpieces. for hope and optimism – that given the ered in front of the imposing monument In other instances, right conditions, and perhaps enough to the heroes of the uprising, opposite the Jews were forced to historical developments over time, Pol- Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, play music when the ish-Jewish relations may be entering its which was being officially opened on this inmates arrived in golden age. auspicious anniversary. Auschwitz (or other In that atmosphere I was reminded Seventy years ago, near this very spot, camps), or during of the words of the most famous Jewish a small band of Jewish fighters launched their executions. victim of Nazi Germany, Anne Frank: “I their doomed, month-long revolt against But now still believe, in spite of everything, that the might of the German army – 13,000 Beethoven was being people are truly good at heart.” Jews were killed in the ghetto during the played freely in the Who could not feel that way, at least uprising, some 6,000 of that number were same place where it for the moment, when surrounded by burned alive or died from other causes. was once prohibited, so many people of good will? And who The evening before Rotem’s talk, the and not to deceive or could not feel some measure of com- Israel Symphony Orchestra, conducted drown out the death fort, given that Anne Frank herself pre- by Zubin Mehta at Warsaw’s national op- cries of prisoners, but dicted that such a time would come, era house, Opera Narodowa, performed to the delight of two when she wrote: “I hear the approach- a number of pieces, beginning with the peoples once accost- ing thunder that, one day, will destroy Polish and Israeli national anthems, and ed by the same brutal us too. I feel the suffering of millions. followed, perhaps surprisingly, by three foe. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I pieces by German composer Ludwig Van I found an even somehow feel that this cruelty too shall Beethoven. Simcha “Kazik” Rotem, the last surviving leader of the 1943 deeper lesson, how- end, and that peace and tranquillity will As I heard the national anthems, my Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (and a participant in the 1944 Pol- ever. After the demise return once again.” mind drifted back to those dark days of ish Uprising) is escorted to the podium on April 19th, 2013 of Nazi Germany, In the end, despite all the travails of the ghetto, illuminated only by the acts of at the 70th Anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising ceremony, in a natural response the human experience, there is a core physical and spiritual resistance carried front of the Rapoport Monument in Warsaw. He was awarded might have been to of human decency that inevitably will out by those who, to this day, stand as a the Grand Cross of the Polonia Restituta by Polish President despise everything rise up against evil, time and time again, singular model of courage and heroism. Bronislaw Komorowski. [Adam Guz Photo] about Germany – its and throw off the shackles of injustice. I recalled that Jewish fighters hung art, its literature and It might take more than 12 years and a Polish and Jewish flags on the rooftops tury later, the same two anthems were its music. Thus, by playing Beethoven on world war, as it did with Nazi Germany, of the buildings in Muranowska Square being heard, but not as the last breaths of the anniversary of the uprising against or it might take more than seven decades, when the Nazis began their ferocious as- emaciated prisoners on the way to their his descendants, we are asserting that no as it did with Soviet communism, but the sault on the ghetto. demise, but played by a full symphony nation is inherently good or evil, or nec- human desire for freedom, justice and And then I recalled the words from orchestra – from Israel no less! – joined essarily better or worse than another, that brotherhood will ultimately prevail. Leib Langfuss, the rabbinical judge of by thousands of Poles and Jews of Polish what happened in Germany should not That is what I felt standing in the for- the Polish town of Makow-Mazowiecki, origin, in a free and democratic Poland. blind us to all the good that came before mer ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, as our who had been deported to Auschwitz in In a country where every Jew was once and might still be possible. We condemn two peoples stood side by side, singing 1942 where he was forced into being a condemned to death, and every Pole’s life Nazi Germany in the strongest possible Hatikvah (The Hope) and Jeszcze Polska Sonderkommando. Miraculously he kept was at risk (in the words of Wladyslaw terms, but in this same judgment, we ut- nie zgin ła (Poland Is Not Yet Lost), pro- a written diary of his experiences, which Bartoszewski, co-founder of Zegota, the terly refute Hitler's legacy by not sentenc- claiming in word and music, a path to a came to an abrupt halt when he was ex- council to aid Jews, and one of the Righ- ing all of Germany or all Germans – prior brighter future. ecuted in November 1944 for taking part teous Among Nations), where even giving to and since the Holocaust – to eternal Eli Rubenstein is national director of in the rebellion that destroyed Cremato- a Jew a piece of bread might prove to be ostracism. the March of the Living and the March of rium No. 4 in Birkenau. a death sentence for a Pole and his or her That evening in the Warsaw opera Remembrance and Hope, programs fund- On one occasion, Langfuss describes entire family, Jews and Poles had gath- house, the works of Beethoven, and all ed by Jewish Federations of Canada -UIA..

Load more