Next THIS week: The Commemoration.
75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Friends -
I write this on the
eve of my trip to Poland, to observe the 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising commemoration. I will be there under the auspice of POLIN Museum. We
are expecting thousands of visitors to the Museum as well as a group of approximately
150 VIPs from a variety of American Jewish organizations, including World
Jewish Congress, HaShomer Hatzair, YIVO and others. It will be an incredible
show of solidarity plus a variety of emotions I cannot even describe.
I will be bringing
my copy of The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan. Here is a link to a description of the man, and to his diary. Kaplan’s eyewitness account of the horrors of the
Warsaw Ghetto is as vivid as ever.
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The Daffodils campaign and Remembering Together concert
on the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
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My mother had noted
that Chaim Kaplan lived next door to her family once her family was “relocated’
to the Warsaw Ghetto from Lodz. As time moves on and away from that terrible
era, somehow this commemoration seems to make the unspeakable horror seem
closer than ever – as though this just happened, and I am coming to protest the
mistreatment of Jews at the hands of their tormentors. As though this happened
to someone else, and not to hundreds of members of my own family – including
every one of my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
Thus, I will be
there to honor the memory of our people. If you can’t be there with me, I will
also honor the memory of your family. Of “Our” family.
It is important for
me to share that all is not gloom and doom. Please take a look at the attached.
You will find information about the events of next week that are being
sponsored by POLIN Museum.
There is a strong and growing voice of Jewish
renewal that I will also be there to support. I hope you will consider joining
me on this journey – if not now, then in the future.
All the best in the
meantime,
(FYI - here's the attachment)
WARSAW: April 6 2018
The
Daffodils campaign and Remembering Together concert
on
the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
April 19, 2018, marks the 75th anniversary of the
outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – the biggest Jewish military revolt
during World War II, and the first urban insurgency in occupied Europe. On April
18, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews will organize two unique events:
the sixth edition of the Daffodils social-educational campaign; and the Remembering
Together concert. At 12 noon, Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of
Poland, invites participants to a special ceremony to commemorate the
anniversary in the square in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in
Warsaw, across from POLIN Museum.
In the summer of 1942, the Germans began the
so-called Great Deportation Aktion of the Ghetto, which was built in
1940. Nearly 300,000 Jews were deported to the extermination camp in Treblinka.
On April 19, 1943, 2,000 Germans entered the Ghetto order to carry out its final liquidation. They were met with the
resistance of several hundred poorly armed insurgents. In the course of a month
that followed, they engaged in combat amongst the rubble of the systematically
destroyed Ghetto.
The Daffodils campaign
On April 19, POLIN
Museum of the History of Polish Jews will launch the sixth annual Daffodils
social-educational campaign. This year, a record number of over 1,500
volunteers will distribute paper daffodil badges - the symbol of remembrance of
the Uprising - in the streets of Warsaw.
Why daffodils?
They are related
to the figure of Marek Edelman, the last commander of the Jewish Combat
Organization which organized the Uprising together with the Jewish Military
Union. Edelman was one of the few survivors. After the war had ended, each year
on the anniversary of the Uprising, he used to lay a bouquet of yellow flowers
at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. POLIN Museum continues this tradition by
distributing thousands of yellow flowers and leaflets informing on the Uprising
on 19 April. By wearing the paper daffodil on our lapel we demonstrate that we
are all united in the memory of those who perished in a combat for dignity.
“We cannot change
the past, but we can preserve the memory of the residents of Warsaw who fought
for freedom, dignity and life during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,” say Ania and
Janek Goliasz, campaign volunteers. “The memory is all that we have left of
these people. That is why we have to join the Daffodils campaign each
year on April 19.”
The Goliaszes say
they have met passionate and enthusiastic volunteers in the course of the campaign.
“It is a community of people of goodwill, so hard to come across these days.
Undoubtedly, we can call them our second family. The growing community of volunteers
who remember and do not let people forget is the highest asset of the Daffodils
campaign.”
This year, famed personalities
from the POLISH entertainment industry - Maja Komorowska, Katarzyna Nosowska, Zofia Wichłacz,
Radzimir Dębski (JIMEK) and Dawid Ogrodnik - also joined in promoting the
campaign.
The Daffodils social-educational
campaign is organized under the National Auspices of the President of the
Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda on the 100th Anniversary of Poland’s
Independence, and the honorary patronage of the Ministry of Education. As in previous
years, schools, libraries and other institutions from all over Poland will join the campaign,
organizing various activities related to the commemoration of the outbreak of
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This year, over 1,000 institutions are planning to
join in, but more can still do so by filling in this form no later than April 17. Teachers and representatives of the cooperating
institutions will be provided with special instructional materials.
Remembering Together concert
At 8 PM, the Uprising anniversary ceremony
will end with a special concert organized in front of the Monument to the Ghetto
Heroes. The concert will feature the
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and
will include, among others, 4th part of the IX
Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. In the autumn of 1940, musicians in the
Warsaw Ghetto set up a Jewish Symphony Orchestra. Artists who had performed
with the National Philharmonics or the Polish Radio Orchestra before the war
were amongst its members.
Despite the ban on performing pieces by non-Jewish
composers, the Orchestra performed pieces by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Schubert
or Mozart. In April 1942, the German administration suspended the Orchestra’s
activity, and yet the musicians continued to perform underground. In the summer
of 1942, the Orchestra, together with the 80-people strong Shir (Hebrew
for “song”) choir, began rehearsals to perform the IX Symphony by Ludwig van
Beethoven.
The text of Ode to Joy from the IV Symphony was to be sung in
Hebrew. The musicians of the Jewish Symphony Orchestra and the Shir
Choir did not perceive Beethoven’s music as an element of German culture. His
music constituted part of their music world before the war, and part of their
musical identity. Performance of the IX Symphony in the Ghetto was to serve
also as a form of protest against the barbarity of Nazism, the forced
imprisonment within the Ghetto walls and the symbolic exclusion of Jews from
humanity. Alas, the concert did not take place.
On July 22, 1942, the Germans began the Great
Deportation Aktion in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the course of the following
few weeks over 300,000 Jews, including almost all the artists of the Jewish
Symphony Orchestra and the Shir Choir perished in the Treblinka
extermination camp. 19 April, the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, is a perfect occasion to complete the unfinished work
of the Orchestra under the baton of Szymon Pullman and the Choir run by Izrael
Fajwiszys.
The Polish National Radio
Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir will be conducted by
Maestro Gabriel Chmura. In the second part of the concert, the Polish National
Radio Symphony Orchestra under the composer’s baton will perform for the first
time a piece by Radzimir Dębski (JIMEK) composed
especially for 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Remembering Together concert
is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the
Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland. The admission to the
concert is free, but it is vital to arrive no later than 7.45 PM due to the TV
broadcast which is about to start at 8 PM sharp.
The press and graphic materials are available here.
For more information on the Daffodils campaign
and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising please click here.
