In 1945, Shikl Gershberg sang a song about the massacre by German and Romanian troops that killed 437 people in his small Ukrainian town in July 1941. It ended with the haunting line: "Our town of Zhabokrych became a cemetery." For many years, the song was the only memorial to Gershberg's family and community. A physical monument remained unrealized due to restrictions by Soviet authorities. This paper, based on newly discovered archival materials, oral histories, and memoirs, examines how Soviet citizens dealt with state prohibitions against public commemorations of Holocaust victims, and engaged in personal and communal acts of remembrance after the war. Part of the Socialist Studies Seminar series.
Full Details
Friday, November 14
Our Town Is Now a Cemetery: Soviet Yiddish Amateur Songs and the Rituals of Holocaust Commemoration, 1945–1947
Time:
4:00 pm
Presenter:
Anna Shternshis (University of Toronto)
Location:
Baker Hall 246A, Carnegie Mellon University
Sponsored by:
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies along with Department of History and Carnegie Mellon University Department of History
Contact:
Alissa Klots
Contact Email:
alissaklots@pitt.edu