Ruska Korczak
Jirka Taussig-Tesir
Jacob Gens
Gela zSeksztajn
LODZ
Franta Maier
Mark Dworzecki
Ruska Korczak
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"The ghetto has no 'tomorrow,' rather, it lives from moment to moment. Each morning, man awakes from a restless slumber: his first thought is – the night has passed, who knows what this day will bring?"
”We were the stars of Terezin and every Sunday afternoon 3500 fans watched the league games. The young saw us as role-models, we instilled hope in them because, it seems, we represented life. In the midst of the suffering, the despair and the misery, hope was a rare commodity. We played for them because we knew they would be transported east, and we had a feeling we were spreading a small glimmer of light before death. "
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…We wanted to give man the opportunity to free himself from the ghetto for several hours, and this we achieved. We are passing through dark and difficult days. Our bodies are in the ghetto, but our spirit has not been enslaved…
Before the first concert it was said that concerts should not be held in graveyards. True, the statement is true, but all of life is now a graveyard Our hands must not falter. We must be strong in body and soul.
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“We played soccer twice a week and it was nice. The crowd would come in droves because the games provided a temporary respite from the daily hardships. We were adored like soccer players and rock stars are adored today. “In Terezin you could get everything". “That was the tragedy. Everybody remembers the extensive cultural activities and operas, but it was a cover and camouflage for the fact that people were constantly sent east. I did everything possible to keep the kids away from the reality”
"These are the fundamental thoughts of everyone in the ghetto. Hold on – this is the aspiration, the motto of every person. If your soul is weighted down with concern – go to a concert, a play at the ghetto theater – you need to put aside the sadness, so that you'll be able to think, and sadness will not cloud your thoughts at a critical time. "Like someone receiving medication, like those who receive a transfusion, this is how it was for those who periodically went to the satire plays at the theater, to laugh a little and dissipate the 'black bitterness," to force themselves into a lighter mood, and forget for several hours the melancholy and despair."
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"I wish to say goodbye to my friends and my work. I donate my work to the Jewish museum that will be founded in the future, in order to restore pre- war Jewish culture up until 1939 and to learn the terrible tragedy of Jewish community in Poland during the war. I am calm now; I am destined to be killed. I am trying to hide some of my work. I only want that my name, and the name of my talented daughter, Margarita Lichtenstein, be remembered.
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The Future reader, given so much information about the cultural events and other forms of social life in the ghetto, will shake his head in doubt and will start considering it in his heart that the situation of ghetto inhabitants might not have been so tragic when they led such a rich and bursting social life…Already now, there are many people in the ghetto who reject this mirage, claiming that such shallow entertainment does not suit the circumstances. But if we buried this only source of vitality and affirmation of life, we would be the ones who suppress the basic life instinct in people in trouble. Being able to sit in a theater hall, far from the hopeless reality, to go out to the corridor during the intermission, to gossip, to flirt, to show off anew drew or hairdo – these luxuries should not be taken away from the people living in a cultural center of the utmost importance, which Lodz used to be before the war. The chronical of the ghetto wishes, therefore, to approach this issue with understanding and to tell the future reader that the suffering in the ghetto was no less only because someone could experience a few hours of joy there.
"The Ghetto even had a sports field. Workers went to great efforts to create it – cleaning' lining and expanding the field by destroying adjoining building that were unfit for use… and indeed it was announced that the next day there would be a festive opening ceremony for the sports field- entrance by invitation only.
"At the ceremony, representatives of the Judenrat and the police were present, 'If in years to come one will wish to trace and understand our life in the ghetto, and no documentation remains, this field will faithfully testify to essential vitality and the unbridled spirit of life that dwells within us..'
"At the ceremony, representatives of the Judenrat and the police were present, 'If in years to come one will wish to trace and understand our life in the ghetto, and no documentation remains, this field will faithfully testify to essential vitality and the unbridled spirit of life that dwells within us..'
"Theater, elegance, sport – these bring a growing sense of optimism. A growing number of voices are heard – In spite pf it all, we will outlive our enemies and win…"
