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Third gate. The road to memory
In 1943, upon learning of the Germans’ preparations for the final liquidation of the ghetto, the second-largest uprising of the Jewish population against the German occupiers—after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—took place. This uprising was doomed to fail from the start. It lasted just over a day. The ghetto was liquidated, and at least 30,000 Jews from Białystok were deported to extermination camps. Of the approximately 45,000 Jews who lived in Białystok and its surroundings before the war, only a few hundred survived. The concert “The Third Gate” will commemorate this painful anniversary.
The Białystok Ghetto had three main gates: from Jurowiecka Street, Kupiecka Street, and Fabryczna Street. The first two served for daily passage. The third gate was flung wide open only on August 16, 1943, when Jews were herded through it onto trains bound for the camps in Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek... The Third Gate became a distinct symbol—a sign of the Białystok Holocaust.
The creator of this exceptional project was Miron Zajfert, a director and promoter of musical life who passed away in 2023. The time frame encompassed by this extraordinary musical fresco spans from June 27, 1941—the day the Great Synagogue was burned—to August 15/16, 1943—the moment of the uprising’s outbreak and the final liquidation of the ghetto. The concept was to create a musical arch between these two tragic events. This arch is filled with synagogue music performed by the ensemble Yael and organist Jakub Stefk, representing, in the first case (1941), a symbol of “the end of the normal world,” and in the second (1943), a mystical conclusion to the whole—an allegory of Fulfillment.
The musical space between these two sacred pillars is filled with songs from the Białystok Ghetto, drawn from the collection “Lider fun di getos un lagern” by Szmerke Kaczerginski, as well as Hasidic nigunim. The ghetto songs will portray images of despair and sorrow, but also moments of daily life and rare glimpses of laughter. They are presented by Kasai and Julia Marcell, along with the Shoven Quartet. The world of Hasidic nigunim are brought to life by the musicians of Trio Bastarda.
In 1943, upon learning of the Germans’ preparations for the final liquidation of the ghetto, the second-largest uprising of the Jewish population against the German occupiers—after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—took place. This uprising was doomed to fail from the start. It lasted just over a day. The ghetto was liquidated, and at least 30,000 Jews from Białystok were deported to extermination camps. Of the approximately 45,000 Jews who lived in Białystok and its surroundings before the war, only a few hundred survived. The concert “The Third Gate” will commemorate this painful anniversary.
The Białystok Ghetto had three main gates: from Jurowiecka Street, Kupiecka Street, and Fabryczna Street. The first two served for daily passage. The third gate was flung wide open only on August 16, 1943, when Jews were herded through it onto trains bound for the camps in Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek... The Third Gate became a distinct symbol—a sign of the Białystok Holocaust.
The creator of this exceptional project was Miron Zajfert, a director and promoter of musical life who passed away in 2023. The time frame encompassed by this extraordinary musical fresco spans from June 27, 1941—the day the Great Synagogue was burned—to August 15/16, 1943—the moment of the uprising’s outbreak and the final liquidation of the ghetto. The concept was to create a musical arch between these two tragic events. This arch is filled with synagogue music performed by the ensemble Yael and organist Jakub Stefk, representing, in the first case (1941), a symbol of “the end of the normal world,” and in the second (1943), a mystical conclusion to the whole—an allegory of Fulfillment.
The musical space between these two sacred pillars is filled with songs from the Białystok Ghetto, drawn from the collection “Lider fun di getos un lagern” by Szmerke Kaczerginski, as well as Hasidic nigunim. The ghetto songs will portray images of despair and sorrow, but also moments of daily life and rare glimpses of laughter. They are presented by Kasai and Julia Marcell, along with the Shoven Quartet. The world of Hasidic nigunim are brought to life by the musicians of Trio Bastarda.