Page 21 - Issue 22

That night, I ran a ten minute peula on composers in the
Holocaust. We listened to a short piece written by a Jewish
composer who was killed in Sobibor Extermination Camp
and talked about the style of the music presented. Because I
have listened to a few other Jewish composers, who met
similar fates, I explained how it's possible that these
composers did not die in vain, since the Holocaust involved
very tragic ways of death. Since their lives revolved around
music, they knew that they possessed a unique skill of
artistic presentation. They had access to express their
thoughts and ideas. I mentioned, as an example, that at one
of the camps in Czechoslovakia, Theresienstadt, the
composers organized an orchestra with prisoners that made
performances at the camp. Though they were killed, they
used an innovative method to free their mindset of death and
used music to maintain dignity.

Our next destination was Warsaw, which was the site of the
well-known Warsaw Ghetto. This place was where the
largest concentration of Jews were in Eastern Europe. The
Nazis segregated the Jews from the Polish population,
suffering under cold weather, poor housing conditions, and
low food supplies. Overtime, thousands upon thousands
were deported through the Umschlagplatz (collection point).
Trains have been a favorite concept that I have enjoyed as a
child. To see it used to ship humans like cattle in box cars
without food or water was unthinkable. Many of the Jews
thought that they were going to be “resettled,” only to find
their own graves at the end of the line. The Jews were not
the only ones to fight back the tyranny of the Nazi
Occupation, but also the Poles. The Polish people were not
fond of the Nazis, who violated the German-Soviet Non
Aggression Pact and invaded the country. Their malicious
plan included control in preparation for the elimination of the
Jews in Europe. This was the master plan called