Sofia Magid (1892–1954) and Moishe Beregowski (1892–1961) collected hundreds of audio recordings from the old Galicia, now mostly part of Ukraine, until 1941.
The aim of these musicologists was to research and preserve the voices and songs of the Jewish population. Officially, it was claimed that they were looking for suitable singers for the socialist choirs of the future.
The sounds and other audio artefacts were recorded on wax cylinders, which survived the Second World War in St. Petersburg.
Elvira Grözinger and Susi Hudak-Lazic have transferred the approximately 400 audio documents to modern media for the monumental work ‘Unser Rebbe, unser Stalin … ’ (Our Rebbe, our Stalin …), transcribed the songs, identified the Yiddish lyrics and translated them.
The adventurous story of researching this Jewish life in audio documents before the Second World War remains unique to this day.
Almost all of the people whose voices we can hear so clearly today were murdered.
We remember them with our own texts and completely new music: ‘improviso’, without forewarning, created in the moment, like a shared breath … and different every concert evening – unexpected.
You will hear a great deal about various topics from the life of the ‘Schtetl’. Life, work, no one knew what was coming …
Elvira Grözinger will personally recount the events surrounding the discovery and transfer of the audio recordings.
The ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, Else and Bertold Beitz, saved many Jews in the region where these antique recordings were made.
Thank you.
This project is made possible by funding from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Foundation.
