Heroes And Poets - Memorial Concert of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943 (Shura Lipovsky, Zalmen Mlotek, Jeff Warschauer)

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising  was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. German casualties are not known, but were not more than 300. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II. You can read more about that uprising via this website.

Shura Lipovsky is one of the best known singers of Yiddish and Jewish songs in the world. Born in the Hague to a Russian-Dutch Jewish family, she took an early interest in Jewish folk music, especially Yiddish songs, and studied singing at the Rotterdam Conservatory, under the tutelage of Margaret Honig. She left the Netherlands to study in New York with pianist and conductor Zalmen Mlotek and Jewish folk culture expert Ruth Rubin. There she also met Jeff Warschauer, a mandolinist and guitarist with whom she performs in the Shurele Yiddish Ensemble. Her albums include Heroes and Poets, Tsart: Tenderness in Word and Sound, and Moments of Jewish Life.  

Lipovsky gave this Commemoration Concert of the 50th Anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw Philharmonia (1993), together with Zalmen Mlotek and Jeff Warschauer.


"Life called for us - Es hot undz dos lebn gerufn

On the 19th of April 1993, the day before our concert with Zalmen Mlotek, Jeff Warschauer and I were standing by a stage set up on the main square in the city of Warsaw. A huge crowd was gathered around the stage, which was protected by two rows of armed solierts. As Lech Walesa, Yitzhak Rabin and Al Gore took the platform, music played over the loudspeakers, ending with the haunting sound of a train passing and disappearing in the distance. The silence that followed was that of death.

Everybody knew why we were gathered around that stage: to commemorate the heroes and martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto who had died fighting against the massive force of Poland´s Nazi occupiers. On the 19th of April 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto revolted in a desperate cry for freedom.

The deep voice of Yitzhak Rabin cried, shouted, prayed and echoed through the shivering silence of the streets of Warsaw. It reminded us of the many for whom we moruned, and it showed us that `we are here´. We were in Warsaw together with hundreds of Jewish children from Israel and throughout the world, starting life all over again: Es hot undz des lebn geruf, life called for us.

Being part of this impressive moment I realized the very reason we were there. It was the fact that during that time of terror poets and composers had the courage and the strength to go on describing what was happening. Their creativity was then serving one goal: not to give up hope and trust in the human mind and to convey, besides the message of terror, the possibility to survive mentally by creating and composing songs.

To me, the phenomenon that people in such terrible circumstances did not give up singing and writing, is a manifestation of true heroism. These songs and poems were my personal entree into the history of my people´s fight for justice.

It is our fervent hpe that this CD will be not only the expression of this struggle, but that it will serve as a human document of poetry and courage, and as a message taht implores us all to regard every nation and people, minority or majority, with respect, interst and wonder.

Es hot undz dos lebn gerufn..." -  Shury Lipovsky

Tracklist:
1.Introduction

2.Kadish

3.Announcing: Ay lyu-lyu

4.Ay Lyu-Lyu, Nakht Un Regn

5.Announcing: Der hoyfsinger

6.Der Hoyfsinger Fun Varshever Geto

7.Announcing: Kinderlekh kleyninke

8.Kinderlekh kleyninke

9.Motele fun Varshever Geto

10.Announcing: Der gasn-nign

11.Der Gasn-Nign

12.Announcing: Shifrales portret

13.Shifrales portret

14.Announcing: Tsu eyns, tsvey, dray

15.Tsu eyns, tsvey, dray

16.Announcing: Shtil di nakht

17.Sthil di nakht

18.Announcing: Zog nit keyn mol

19.Zog nit keyn mol

20.Announcing: Eli, eli

21.Eli, eli

22.Announcing: Sholem zol zayn

23.Sholem zol zayn

24.Announcing: Shnirele perele

25.Shnirele perele

Heroes And Poets - Memorial Concert of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943 (Shura Lipovsky, Zalmen Mlotek, Jeff Warschauer)
(256 kbps, cover art included)