Dr. Samuel Kassow will present his translation of Rokhl Auerbach’s Warsaw Testament, her wartime writings from both the Ghetto and the Aryan side of the Nazi-occupied city, which provide an unmatched portrait of the last days of Warsaw’s Yiddish literary and cultural community and her struggle to survive. Journalist and literary critic Auerbach was one of only three surviving members of historian Emanuel Ringelblum’s top-secret group of archivists in the Warsaw Ghetto, whose buried Oyneg Shabes archive documented Jewish life under Nazi oppression. After immigration to Israel in 1950, she founded Yad Vashem’s witness testimony department and played an important role in the preparation of the Eichmann Trial.
Music and poetry drawn from the Warsaw Ghetto archive, featuring Eleanor Reissa and other notable performers, and curated by Bret Werb, a musicologist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will take part in this evening of remembrance.
Samuel Kassow is the Northam Professor of History Emeritus at Trinity College and holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He was on the team of scholars that planned the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and is the author of numerous publications, including Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive.
The Yiddish Book Center recovers, preserves, teaches, and celebrates Yiddish literature and culture to advance a fuller understanding of Jewish history and identity. White Goat Press brings new translations of Yiddish literature to English readers.
Holocaust Music Lost & Found fosters the discovery, study, and performance of works by composers whose lives and careers were upended or destroyed during the Holocaust. Through concerts and educational programs, it raises awareness of music’s power to lift the human spirit and counter antisemitism and hate.
