Poster

Emma Tauber was born on December 24, 1908, in Vilna, Poland, (Vilnius, Lithuania), to Sheina Krainas (1882-1941) and Yekuhiel Constantine, (1878-1941). Her father was an accountant for the government. She had 3 siblings, Lisa,(1923-2005), Pnina, (1910-1945?), and Shimon (1912-1993). Emma was a renowned opera singer, famous for her interpretation of Carmen, in Bizet's opera by that name, which she performed in Vilna, first in Yiddish and then in Hebrew. She emigrated to Palestine in 1934, where she married Zvi Friedman, from Bialystock, Poland in 1935; they had two sons. Several of her family members perished during the Holocaust. Vilna was invaded by the Soviet Union in September 1939. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked Soviet forces in eastern Europe and by June 25, Vilna was occupied by the Germans. Soon after, her father was killed by German Einsatzgruppen [mobile killing units], assisted by Lithuanian auxiliaries, in the massacre in the Ponary forest. Her mother was killed in 1941 and her sister, Pnina, also perished. Her other two siblings survived the war; her sister Lisa emigrating to Israel at some point, and her brother to Antwerp, Belgium. Emma performed professionally throughout Europe in the postwar period. She died, age 65, in Israel in 1973.