The concerts, entitled “Voices from Beyond the Ghetto Wall”, will feature the world premiere of Zimka’s composition. An acclaimed Polish accordionist and composer, Maciej Zimka lectures at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków and is actively involved in promoting music and culture. His new composition combines live music with electronic elements, drawing on Rywka’s writings, which bear witness to life in the ghetto while also revealing her personal reflections, faith and hope.

Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, written in the Łódź Ghetto in 1943–1944, was published in Poland in its original language version in 2017 by Austeria Publishing House and in English in 2014 under the title Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto. Excerpts from the diary were published in Hebrew in Shifra Mescheloff’s book כמיהה וגעגוע: יומנה של ריבצ׳ה, הנערה מגטו לודז׳ (Longing and Yearning: The Diary of Rivka, the Girl from the Łódź Ghetto). The diary is an exceptional personal testimony to the life of a teenage girl in the ghetto, reflecting her thoughts, spiritual world and the hope she tried to preserve amid the harsh realities of life.

“The diary of a girl from the Łódź Ghetto is an exceptional source in many respects. It documents a period that is scarcely represented in memoirs of the ghetto and is written from the perspective of a group whose voice is almost entirely absent from these accounts: adolescent girls from religious backgrounds”, writes Dr Zofia Trębacz from the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute.

The project will feature Magdalena Kulig (mezzo-soprano) and the chamber ensemble Pro Sonus Ensemble. The concerts presenting the new composition will take place on the following dates:

• 25 November at 6:00 p.m. – Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków

• 26 November at 6:00 p.m. – Radegast Station, a branch of the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź

• 27 November at 6:00 p.m. – Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, as part of the 17th Gdańsk Art of Accordion Music Interpretation Festival

Admission to all concerts is free. 

In Poland this November? Don’t miss these concerts!

The project’s visual identity was inspired by the Holocaust memorial commemorating the victims of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, located at Radegast Station in Łódź.

The project is held under the patronage of the Jewish Institute of Art, POLMIC.PL and the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv. The Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź and the Galicia Jewish Museum are also involved in the organisation and presentation of the events.

Maciej Zimka is carrying out the project with the support of a scholarship from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.