Category: Belarus

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#WeRemember

Ponar, Lithuania

27 January 2019

In Australia #WeRemember by singing Zog Nit Keynmol, The Partisans’ Song.

Thanks to Phillip Masel for taking these photos at the ceremony in Mellbourne last night, and sharing them with us

Phillip, 96, was a friend of Hirsh Glik, the poet who wrote the poem in 1943.

 

Please Learn and Teach the Partisans’ Song to your students and children.

You have a choice of 28 languages, or even combinations, and now even in Noongar, Zulu and Xhosa

We can show you an easy and effective way to learn this before Yom Hashoah on 1 / 2 May 2019!

Learn The Partisans’ Song | tangential travel

Learn The Partisans’ Song | tangential travel

 

A Project For Your School Recite or sing the Partisans’ Song in your home tongue, or in a language you have learnt. Make a video, which can be as creative as you wish or just a simple recording. For the poem, each verse is made up of four lines. For the song, the last two lines in each verse are repeated. The Power Of Words The background and context The ‘Partisans’ Song’ – Zog Nit Kein Mol–written by Hirsch Glik, 22, in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 is one of the most powerful songs of resistance and defiance ever written. While Hitler boasted that his Reich would endure for a thousand years, it is the Jewish people who resisted the forces of hatred and have endured, not the murderous Third Reich, which lasted twelve years. Today, 75 years on, long after the demise of Hitler’s murderous regime, the partisans’ song is now sung worldwide to mark the Jewish spirit of resistance. (Michael Cohen, Melbourne)

Source: elirab.me/znk

Listen to the Noongar, an Australian Aboriginal language, version.

View some of our videos of the song:

Videos | tangential travel

Videos | tangential travel

Beis Aharon School, Pinsk, Belarus

Videos of the Partisan Poem and Song Project ORT Compilation videos: Herzl Lyceum ORT, Chisinau, Moldova ORT Tallinn, Estonia Solomo Aleichemo ORT, Vilnius, Lithuania Solomo Aleichemo ORT singing the song during my visit in May 2017 ORT Chernivsti, Ukraine Kiev ORT #141, Ukraine ORT Odessa, Ukraine Moscow 1540 ORT, Russia Kazan ORT, Russia Samara ORT, Russia Mexico CIM ORT Herzlia High School, Cape Town, South Africa King David Victory Park, Johannesburg South Africa Sauleketis School, Vilnius Lithuania Dylan Kotkis of Carmel School, Perth The Poem in English The

Source: elirab.me/videos/

For  information on WE ARE HERE! Foundation Project for Upstanders, visit:

WE ARE HERE! For Upstanders

For Upstanders

Source: wah.foundation

Contact me at eli@elirab.com

Thanks

Eli

 

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SJM Lecture – WE ARE HERE! Project

The Partisan Song Project – WE ARE HERE!
The Sydney Jewish Museum

 10 October 2018

Lunchtime Lecture – The Partisan Song Project: We Are Here

The Partisans’ Song, written by Hirsh Glik, age 22, in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943, is one of the most powerful songs of resistance and defiance ever written.

Source: sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/shop/events/lunchtime-lecture-partisan-song-project/

Zog Nit Keynmol – Bettina and Nogah

DSCN3779

Bettina & Nogah singing Zog Nit Keynmol at the Sydney Jewish Museum 10 October 2018

Source: youtu.be/Prnb7Mc5LDs

Some of my slides

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Photos by Avi Abelsohn

Slideshow:
The Meaning And Significance Of The Partisans’ Song

The Meaning And Significance Of The Partisans’ Song

A Video For Teachers MENU: Introduction – SABC TV Why is singing the song so Important? – Phillip Maisel Defiance Trailer – Bielski Jewish Partisans Soviet N…

Source: youtu.be/NRcGcNGrYWo

Genres:
The Partisans’ Song – Genres

The Partisans’ Song – Genres

A Video For Teachers MENU: The Melody – Pokrass Brothers Original Russian Soundtrack Irish Folk Band – The Rathmines Japanese Version – Isao Oiwa Kugelplex K…

Source: youtu.be/_qeCD6lmMIM

WE ARE HERE! For Upstanders

WE ARE HERE! For Upstanders

Source: wah.foundation

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With Mandy, Les, Avi and Jonathan
Eva Engel OAM
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On The Road In Belarus

For a 5 day visa free visit to Belarus, you must fly in and out of Minsk airport. My drive from Minsk to Pinsk took 4 hours, mostly on an excellent toll road, free for Belarusian registered cars. Watch out for speed cameras though! 

Speed camera – beware!

Lenin

An Orthodox Church

A cemetery

The latest model

Pinsk – at last!

Town signs

Mir

 

Zelva

Sometimes to get somewhere, make your own pathway!

But it can be worth it!

Reading road signs in cyrillic can be fun!

A pit stop on the E30 Toll Road

 

On the road to Moscow

At the Minsk airport petrol station

My biggest challenge: Filling up with petrol at the airport before returning the rental car.

With hardly anyone able to speak English, try guessing how many litres you need to fill up the car, then going into the shop and ordering the correct amount. They do this as people drive off without paying. I guessed the amount within one litre. Not bad!

Let’s meet at the airport petrol station!

I hope I’m not flying on one of these!

    

   

Where?

Found it!  

Making sure we leave!

I had a great time in Belarus  – see my previous posts!

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Mir, Belarus

The Jewish Cemetery

Mir Kehilalink

Mir, Belarus

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/mir/Home.html

 

  

Victor’s Private Museum 

Tamara Vershitskaya reading  records of the Cynkin family of Mir 

 

Video

Video

Descendants of Shlomo Yosef Cynkin

Descendant Chart Shlomo Yosef Cynkin

Yiddish music

Video

More museum Jewish exhibits

My accomodation at the guest house attached to the museum

With Victor, owner of the museum

Mir Castle

The Town Centre

Farewell 

Former Synagogue Buildings

    

Now the Mirski Posad Hotel

    

The Town Square

The Orthodox Church

    

 

Road signs

 

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Zhetl, Slonim and Zelva

Dzyatlava / Zhetl

Dzyatlava – Wikipedia

Dziatlava (Belarusian: Дзятлава, Lithuanian: Zietela, Polish: Zdzięcioł, Russian: Дятлово, Yiddish: זשעטל‎ Zhetl) is a town in Belarus in the Hrodna voblast, about 165 km southeast of Hrodna. The population was 7,700 in 2016.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzyatlava

dzyat.htm

Dzyatlava massacre

Dzyatlava massacre – Wikipedia

The Dzyatlava massacres (Yiddish: Zhetel‎, Polish: Zdzięcioł, and Belarusian: Dzyatlava) were two consecutive mass shooting actions carried out three months apart during the Holocaust.[1] The town of Zdzięcioł was nominally Polish until the end of World War II in 1945. It was located in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the Second Republic prior to the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland. Zdzięcioł was overrun twice, first by the Red Army in September 1939, and again, by the German forces in June 1941 after the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa.[2]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzyatlava_massacre

High School #1

Tamara translating my  presentation on the Partisans’ Song Project  

The town square    

Zhetl KehilaLink

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Lida-District/dzyat.htm

Slonim

Slonim – Wikipedia

Slonim (Belarusian: Сло́нім, Russian: Сло́ним, Lithuanian: Slanimas, Polish: Słonim, Yiddish: סלאָנים‎, Slonim) is a city in Grodno Region, Belarus, capital of the Slonim district. It is located at the junction of the Shchara and Isa rivers, 143 km (89 mi) southeast of Grodno. The population in 2015 was 49,739.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slonim

Synagogue

   
      
Slonim KehilaLink
              

With Tamara Vershitskaya

The Museum

Town Centre

 

Zelva

Zelva – Wikipedia

Zelva (Belarusian: Зэльва, Russian: Зельва, Polish: Zelwa, Lithuanian: Zelva, Želva, Yiddish: זעלווא‎) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus, the administrative center of Zel’va district. It is situated by the Zel’vyanka River.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelva

Lots of radar in Belarus!

Video

Zelva Belarus

Zelva Belarus

Source: youtu.be/w7tcjrzimAA

Zelva Belarus

 

Zelva KehilaLink

I made a Webpage

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/zelva_belarus/

The Town Square – looking for something specifically Jewish – no luck!

Lenin of course!

Around the town square

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Litouka

If you ever get to Novogrudok in Belarus, be sure to visit this most unusual homestead owned by Sergei Koval who initiated and sponsored a memorial sign to Michle last year and now patronizes the Jewish Resistance Museum.  Amazing art!

Navahrudak Tunnel – Statue of Michle

Navahrudak Tunnel

Source: elirab.me/navahrudak-tunnel/

A memorial sign to all the Jewish children from Novogrudok who perished during the Holocaust was unveiled at the Jewish Resistance Museum in Novogrudok on September 26, 2017. The monument was sponsored by Sergei Koval, a local Jew, who according to his own words ‘fulfilled the wish of the girl’. 

Michle Sosnowski whose picture is in the exhibition of the Museum served as a prototype for the monument. The picture was provided by Jeannette Josse from London who visited Novogrudok in 2005 searching for her roots. Two years later Jeannette sent a book to the Museum in which she incorpoated old pictures into the new ones made during her trip. 

Michle happened to be in her family album because she was her mother’s friend. Together with Sheindel Sukharski they tried to escape from the labour camp in Novogrudok but were recognized in the street, denounced, arrested and taken to prison from which they never came out.

It’s a monument to the child whose greatest wish was to live. Dressed up for Purim she will dance forever next to the Tree of Life which incorporates the Star of David from the Novogrudok synagogue.    

The ceremony was followed by a panel discussion on Remembrance and Commemoration dedicated to the blessed memory of Jack Kagan, a survivor from Novogrudok and a Bielski partisan, whose efforts to preserve the history of Novogrudok Jews and their unprecedented resistance to the Nazis were recognized by awarding him a title of the Honorary Citizen of Novogrudok in 2011.  

With Tamara and Sergei

We Remember Novogrudak

Video

We Remember Novogrudak

Novogrudak School #4

Source: youtu.be/PDIGVhRKH3E

 

The Bishop welcomes us

 

 

  

  

  

 

  

, M

With Tamara and the Bishop

The artist 

Litouka Surprise

Video

Litouka Surprise

Advance Australia Fair

Source: youtu.be/jv-FV_soK6s

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Navahrudak & Castle

Navahrudak

Navahrudak – Wikipedia

Navahrudak (Belarusian: Навагрудак), more commonly known by its Russian name Novogrudok (Новогрудок) (Lithuanian: Naugardukas; Polish: Nowogródek; Yiddish: נאָווהאַרדאָק‎ Novhardok) is a city in the Grodno Region of Belarus. In the 14th century it was an episcopal see of the Metropolitanate of Lithuania. It is a possible first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with Trakai also noted as a possibility. It was later part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire and eventually Poland until the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 when the Soviet Union annexed the area to the Byelorussian SSR.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navahrudak

With Mike Silver of NY and his guide Alexander (centre)

 

Navahrudak Castle

Navahrudak Castle – Wikipedia

The former castle in Navahrudak, Belarus (Belarusian: Навагрудскі замак, Lithuanian: Naugarduko pilis, Polish: Zamek w Nowogródku) was one of the key strongholds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, cited by Maciej Stryjkowski as the location of Mindaugas’s coronation as King of Lithuania as well as his likely burial place.[1][2][3][4] Modern historians cannot make up their minds as to the true location of Mindaugas’s coronation.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navahrudak_Castle

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz – Wikipedia

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ([mit͡sˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ] ( listen); 24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature, and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is counted as one of Poland’s “Three Bards” (“Trzej Wieszcze”)[1] and is widely regarded as Poland’s greatest poet.[2][3][4] He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic[5] and European[6] poets and has been dubbed a “Slavic bard”.[7] A leading Romantic dramatist,[8] he has been compared in Poland and Europe to Byron and Goethe.[7][8]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Mickiewicz

 

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Navahrudak & Castle

Navahrudak

Navahrudak – Wikipedia

Navahrudak (Belarusian: Навагрудак), more commonly known by its Russian name Novogrudok (Новогрудок) (Lithuanian: Naugardukas; Polish: Nowogródek; Yiddish: נאָווהאַרדאָק‎ Novhardok) is a city in the Grodno Region of Belarus. In the 14th century it was an episcopal see of the Metropolitanate of Lithuania. It is a possible first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with Trakai also noted as a possibility. It was later part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire and eventually Poland until the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 when the Soviet Union annexed the area to the Byelorussian SSR.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navahrudak

With Mike Silver of NY and his guide Alexander (centre)

 

Navahrudak Castle

Navahrudak Castle – Wikipedia

The former castle in Navahrudak, Belarus (Belarusian: Навагрудскі замак, Lithuanian: Naugarduko pilis, Polish: Zamek w Nowogródku) was one of the key strongholds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, cited by Maciej Stryjkowski as the location of Mindaugas’s coronation as King of Lithuania as well as his likely burial place.[1][2][3][4] Modern historians cannot make up their minds as to the true location of Mindaugas’s coronation.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navahrudak_Castle

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz – Wikipedia

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ([mit͡sˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ] ( listen); 24 December 1798 – 26 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature, and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is counted as one of Poland’s “Three Bards” (“Trzej Wieszcze”)[1] and is widely regarded as Poland’s greatest poet.[2][3][4] He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic[5] and European[6] poets and has been dubbed a “Slavic bard”.[7] A leading Romantic dramatist,[8] he has been compared in Poland and Europe to Byron and Goethe.[7][8]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Mickiewicz

 

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Navahrudak Jewish Cemetery and Holocaust Sites

NAVAHRUDAK: Grodno Belarus – International Jewish Cemetery Project

NAVAHRUDAK: Grodno [Novogrudok,Novaredok, Novogrudek, Novohorodok, Novradok, Nowogrudok, Nowogradek, Navharadak, Nawahradak, Nowogródek, Navaredok , Naugardukas , | belarus – International Jewish Cemetery Project

The IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project mission is to catalogue every Jewish burial site throughout the world. Every Jewish cemetery or burial site we know of is listed here by town or city, country, and geographic region is based on current locality designation.

Source: www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/belarus/navahrudak.html

Novogrudok, Belarus KehilaLink

Novogrudok, Belarus

Source: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/navahrudak/Home.html

Holocaust Memorials

First Site

Second site  

Third site

  

From Wikipedia:

WWII

Soviet troops entered the city in 18 September 1939 and it was annexed into the Soviet Union via the Byelorussian SSR. The Polish inhabitants were exiled, mostly to Siberia and the Soviet Union, as prisoners. In the administrative division of the new territories, the city was briefly (from 2 November to 4 December) the centre of the Navahrudak Voblast. Afterwards the administrative centre moved to Baranavichy and name of voblast was renamed as Baranavichy Voblast, the city became the centre of the Navahrudak Raion (15 January 1940). On 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the USSR and Navahrudak was occupied on 4 July, following one of the more tragic events when the Red Army was surrounded in what’s known as the Novogrudok Cauldron. See Operation Barbarossa: Phase 1.

During the German occupation it became part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland territory. Partisan resistance immediately began. The Bielski partisans made of Jewish volunteers operated in the region. On 1 August 1943, Nazi troops shot down eleven nuns, the Martyrs of Nowogródek. The Red Army reoccupied the city almost exactly three years after its German occupation on 8 July 1944. During the war more than 45,000 people were killed in the city and in the surrounding area, and over 60% of housing was destroyed.

Navahrudak was an important Jewish center and shtetl. It was home to the Novardok yeshiva, led by Rabbi Yosef Yozel Horwitz, as well as the hometown of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein and of the Harkavy Jewish family, including Yiddish lexicograph Alexander Harkavy. Before the war, the population was 20,000, of which about half were Jewish; Meyer Meyerovitz and Meyer Abovitz were the Rabbis there at that time. During a series of “actions” in 1941, the Germans killed all but 550 of the approximately 10,000 Jews. (The first mass murder of Navahrudak’s Jews occurred in December 1941.) Those not killed were sent into slave labor.[3]

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