Music served as way to document what was
happening during the Holocaust. Original pieces
were composed or new lyrics added to existing
songs in order to describe people’s experiences.
The term "ghetto" origin-
ated from the name of the
Jewish quarter in Venice,
established in 1516, in
which the Venetian auth-
orities compelled the
city's Jews to live.
During World War II, the Nazis aimed to control the
Jewish population by forcing Jews to reside in marked-off
sections of towns and cities they called "ghettos" or
"Jewish residential quarters." Altogether, the Nazis
created at least 1,000 ghettos in the occupied territories.
The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, the Polish capital,
where almost half a million Jews were confined in an
area of 1.3 square miles. The Nazis usually marked off
the oldest, most run-down sections of cities for the
ghettos. Many of the ghettos were enclosed by barbed-
wire fences or walls, with entrances guarded by local and
Nazi police and SS members. Living conditions in the
ghettos were wretched with severe overcrowding, disease,
and starvation.
The Nazis regarded the establishment of ghettos as a
provisional measure to control and segregate Jews while
the leadership in Berlin deliberated upon options to realize
the goal of removing the Jewish population. In many
places ghettos lasted a relatively short time. Some ghettos
existed for only a few days, others for months or years.
Despite the terrible conditions, many ghettos sustained a
rich cultural life. Many of those who had been prominent in
musical activities before the war continued their work in
the ghettos and the camps.
For centuries Vilna was one of the great centres of Jewish
learning, theatre and publishing. It was known as ‘the
Jerusalem of Lithuania’ because of this cultural and intellectual
richness. Its Jewish population of around 60,000 made up
almost 30% of the city’s population.
Vilna was occupied by the Nazis in June 1941 soon after which
the massacres and killings began. In September 1941, the
remaining 40,000 Jews of Vilna were forced into ghetto.
Despite harsh living conditions, the inmates established a vast
range of cultural, intellectual and artistic groups marking a
continuity with the pre-war culture of Vilna. Posters from the
Vilna ghetto survived illustrating the numerous concerts, sports
events, educational programs and public lectures, synagogue
services, and variety of other cultural activities.
Theater "El Dorado" at Dzielna 1 street near Zamenhof Street in the Warsaw Ghetto showing comedy by Z. Kalmanowicz
titled "Rywkełe dem rebns". Premiere on May 2 1941. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-134-0771A-22 / Zermin / CC-BY-SA
The ghetto also had religious and secular schools, orphanages, a large
public library, a music school with more than 100 students and several
theatres.
The ghetto’s underground resistance group, the Fareynigte Partizaner
Organizatsye (FPO - United Partisans’ Organisation) relied on songs to
raise political awareness and build community, but they also criticised
organised musical entertainment within the ghetto. This group and other
political and religious organisations boycotted concerts, distributing
leaflets that declared: “Theatrical performances should not be held in
cemeteries”. However, as the suffering persisted, and the success of
music in inspiring and comforting the people became clearer, most
people came to accept the concerts. In general, the inhabitants of the
Vilna ghetto strongly supported this variety of cultural activity.
The Vilna ghetto was liquidated* on 23 September 1943 - the last
survivors either killed or sent to camps.
