Moshe Diskant

A relatively large amount of artistic creativity marked the three-year existence of the Kovno ghetto.  One of its many important poets and song writers was Moshe Diskant, a well-known Hebrew teacher before the German invasion.  Like Avrom Akselrod and other inmates, he was critical of the divisions between wealthy and poor in the ghetto, and expressed discomfort with the systems of entertainment developed under the guidance of the Jewish Council.  In late 1942 he wrote a highly critical poem bemoaning the fact that

the ghetto elite are invited into the decorated salon and with them they bring the men who ordered – our murder, degradation, and slaughter! They enjoy intensifying the scene with blue and white flags, to hear the music, the pleasant tenor!

Diskant was not to survive the war, dying in a Nazi concentration camp.

Sources

Katsherginski, S. & Leivick, H. eds., Lider fun di Getos un Lagern, New York: Alveltlekher Yidisher Kultur-Kongres.  

USHMM, E. ed., 1997. Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto, Boston, New York, Toronto, London: Bulfinch Press.