In 1943, upon hearing of the Germans' preparations for the final liquidation of the ghetto in Białystok, the second largest uprising of Jewish people against the German occupiers—after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—took place. This uprising was doomed to fail from the outset. It lasted just over a day. The ghetto was liquidated, and at least 30,000 Białystok Jews were deported to extermination camps. Out of approximately 45,000 Jews who had lived in Białystok and its surroundings before the war, only a few hundred survived. The project “The Third Gate” is commemorated this painful anniversary.

The Białystok ghetto had four main gates: one on Jurowiecka Street, one on Kupiecka Street, and one on Fabryczna Street. The first two were used for daily movement. The third gate was flung open only on August 16, 1943, as Jews were herded through it toward trains heading to the camps in Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Majdanek. The third gate became a kind of emblem — a symbol of the Holocaust in Białystok.

The author of this unique project is Miron Zajfert, a director and promoter of musical life who passed away in 2023. The timeframe into which this extraordinary musical fresco is inscribed spans from June 27, 1941—the day the Great Synagogue was burned—to August 15/16, 1943—the outbreak of the uprising and the final liquidation of the ghetto. The idea was to create a kind of musical arch framed by these two tragic events. This arch is filled with synagogue music performed by a vocal quartet and organist, symbolizing in the first case (1941) the “end of the normal world” and in the second (1943), serving as a mystical epilogue—an allegory of Fulfillment.

The musical space between these two sacred pillars are filled with songs from the Białystok ghetto, drawn from Shmerke Kaczerginski’s collection “Lider fun di getos un lagern” (Songs from the Ghettos and Camps), as well as Hasidic nigunim. The ghetto songs are reflecting images of despair, sorrow, but also everyday life and rare moments of joy.