Alexander (Shmaya) Stupel, a well-known German-Jewish violinist and a member of the Kovno ghetto orchestra, stands outside with his instrument case.
Overview
- Caption
- Alexander (Shmaya) Stupel, a well-known German-Jewish violinist and a member of the Kovno ghetto orchestra, stands outside with his instrument case.
- Photographer
- George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin
- Date
-
Circa August 1942 - March 1944
- Locale
- Kaunas, Lithuania
- Variant Locale
- Kauen
Kovno
Kowno - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin
- Event History
- Following the German occupation of Kaunas, many of the city's leading musicians, were forced to move to the Jewish ghetto. Most brought their musical instruments with them. However, on August 18, 1941, soon after the sealing of the ghetto, the Germans held a special "Intellectuals Action" which resulted in the murder of 534 of the most educated men in the ghetto. Afterwards, most musicians were afraid to publicly declare themselves as professionals. The Jewish council decided the best way to protect these musicians was to make them policemen and issue them uniforms. During the summer of 1942, when the killing actions had stopped and the ghetto was in the midst of its "Quiet Period," the council felt it was safe to ask permission for the ghetto's musicians to regroup into an orchestra. The orchestra consisted of 35 instrumentalists and five vocalists led by the noted conductor Michael Leo Hofmekler and the concertmaster Alexander Stupel. Performances were held bi-weekly, and a total of 80 concerts were given during the ghetto's history. Performances were given in the ghetto's Police House, the former building of the Slobodka Yeshiva. They were coordinated by the ghetto's director of education and culture, the noted linguist Chaim Nachman Shapiro (who was also the son of Kovno's chief rabbi). Though the first concert, which began with a moment of silence followed by "Kol Nidre" (the opening hymn of the Yom Kippur service), featured only serious music, many in the ghetto felt it was unseemly to hold concerts in a place of mourning. They considered these concerts to be solely for the ghetto elite and a desecration of the yeshiva. However, despite these criticisms, most felt that the concerts served a useful purpose in raising the level of morale in the ghetto. Ironically, though the musicians were initially made policemen as a form of protection, during the "Police Action" of March 27, 1944, only the musicians were spared transfer to the Ninth Fort.
See https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005174.
See Also "Kauen Main Camp" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Volume 1 Part A.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
USHMM (Restricted)
Copyright: Exclusively with provenanceProvenance: George Kadish/Zvi KadushinSource Record ID: Collections: CR 1503. - Published Source
- Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Little, Brown and Company - p.175
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- The Stupels were a family of noted Lithuanian musicians. Dmitri (Meir) Stupel (b. 1860) served as the conductor of the Vilna Symphony, and his wife, Maria (Miriam) Antakolsky Stupel (b. 1870) was the daughter of a famous Jewish sculptor. They had three boys, Alexander (Sasha or Shmaya, b. 1900), Gregory (Grisha) and Boris (Abraham or Abrasha) and two girls, Mania and Sonia (b. 1906), most of whom trained in Germany and also became professional, well-regarded musicians. After the Polish re-occupation of Vilnius following World War I, the family moved to Kaunas. Alexander, the oldest son, was an excellent violinist and performed with the Kaunas Symphony. The second son Gregory was a pianist. He studied music in Leipzig, Germany, and married Esther Lan. Her father, a wealthy businessman was also director of the Jewish Theater in Kaunas. Gregory played in the Jewish Theater, which was run by his father-in-law Gabriel Lan. Boris also studied violin in Germany and married a German woman. At some point he returned to Kaunas and became imprisoned in the Kovno ghetto.
Of the large family only Boris survived. The mother Miriam perished in 1942 in Kaunas at the age of 70, and the father Dmitri Stupel perished in 1942 in Fort 9 at the age of 80. Mania died before the war, and Sonia Stupel Abramson, who also was a violinist, perished in the ghetto in 1943. Aleksander Stupel survived the ghetto but was deported to Dachau where he perished in 1944. Gregory fled to the Soviet interior with his wife and child on the heels of the German invasion. Gregory died on the Russian front in 1942. His wife Esther came back to Lithuania with her only son. Esther's parents, Gabriel and Chaya Lan, were killed in the Ninth Fort. Boris Stupel survived the ghetto and incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp. After liberation he reunited with his wife. They moved to Australia with their only son, Joe who became a musical director of one of the Melbourne Synagogues.
- Record last modified:
- 2003-03-17 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa11831
