Poland Part III: Day 2
Today is the concert at the POLIN Museum.
Performing with My Polish Wisnia in Warsaw.
My grandfather was a singing star, a child prodigy of Poland. He studied with famous Cantors Gershon Sirota and Moshe Koussevitsky; he sang in opera houses, in theaters and on Polish radio; he performed at the notorious Tlomackie Synagogue as a featured soloist, backed by an 80-person choir. Whatever bright future lay ahead for little David was snuffed out, suddenly and violently, by the war.
We will never know the magnitude of what was lost in the Holocaust – not just the lives, but the careers, the achievements, the dreams, the art, the ideas. But for a moment, when David Wisnia returns to Poland 75 years later to sing to rapt audiences in crowded auditoriums, he becomes the star of Poland he was always meant to be.
Music is a natural entry point to talking about the Holocaust.
Because music can express things that can’t be articulated in words.
Because music can help us explore the unfathomable.
Because music connects us, all of us.
