Results: Behind This Song Is a Great Story

'Shtiler, shtiler' (Quiet, Quiet), composed by 11-year-old Alek Volkoviski with lyrics by Shmerke Kaczerginski, was one of the best-loved songs of the Vilna ghetto. The poignant lyrics chronicle the murders taking place at Ponar, a forest near Vilna, and lament the pain and suffering of the ghetto inmates. The Jews used many ways to struggle against the Nazi system. One way, perhaps the most heroic and least familiar, was the cultural struggle. Against the threat of impending death, the horrors of daily existence and in the most impossible conditions, a life full of rich, creative and spiritual culture was established. This song was created for a song contest that was held in the ghetto in the year 1943, a few months before it was destroyed. Are you familiar with either this song or the Vilna Ghetto?

In the midst of all this horror, in an effort to keep their sanity, and protect the children from reality, the town held a competition for which the song that later became "Quiet, Quiet" was composed. The first performance of the song was by a young Jewish girl who later perished in the Stutthof concentration camp in 1945, toward the end of the war. The words of the song, which tell of the gloom and doom that had befallen Vilna, were turned into a lullaby so that the Nazis would not be able to understand. The song's lyrics told a different story than the pretty, lullaby music, beginning with the first lyrics (translated) , "Quiet, quiet, let's be silent, Graves are growing here. They were planted by the enemies, See their bloom appear. All the roads lead to Ponar now, There are no roads back. Papa too has vanished somewhere And with him our luck." Do you find these lyrics poignant given what we know about the Holocaust?

Alek Wolkowyski, the little boy who composed the song for the contest and succeeded beyond anyone's expectations, became Alexander Tamir, the famous Israeli concert pianist. In 1968, along with his musical partner, Bracha Eden, the duo founded the Targ (now the Eden–Tamir) Music Center in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. The story of his childhood, and the return to his birthplace is told in the Israeli film Ponar. Have you seen this film?

One of the many tragedies of the Holocaust was the tremendous loss to the world of the arts. Composers, artists, musicians, dancers, sculptors, singers, the list goes on. These tragic losses to the arts have been chronicled in films and books -- which of these films have you seen?