MUSIC

Kristallnacht Concert 2022
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Premiere: 'The Partisans' Song' in  te reo Māori, International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022

‘The Partisans' Song’ world premiere performance of the te reo Māori translation (following the song in Yiddish), 27 January 2022, Parliament, Wellington, New Zealand. International Holocaust Remembrance Day 
Vocalist: Anastasia Reid. Pianist: Liam Furey. (New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī)
Written in Yiddish by Hirsh Glik “Zog Nit Keynmol” (“Never Say”) was a triumphant and hopeful call for defiance, inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The song became a beacon to many and quickly grew to be known as 'The Partisans' Song'.
Translated by Hēmi Kelly (Ngati Maniapoto, Ngati Tahu-Ngati Whaoa), of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), The Partisans' Song initiative is led by the WE ARE HERE! Foundation of Australia.

Zog Nit Keynmol
Yiddish/Transliteration
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Zog nit keynmol az du gayst dem letzten veg,
Ven himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg;
Vayl kumen vet noch undzer oysgebenkte shuh,
Es vet a poyk tun undzer trot - mir zaynen do!
 
Fun grinem palmenland biz land fun vaysen shney,
Mir kumen un mit undzer payn, mit undzer vey;
Un voo gefalen iz a shpritz fun undzer blut,
Shpritzen vet dort undzer gvure, undzer mut.
 
Es vet di morgenzun bagilden undz dem haynt,
Un der nechten vet farshvinden mitn faynt;
Nor oyb farzamen vet di zun in dem ka-yor,11
Vi a parol zol geyn dos leed fun door tzu door.
 
Geshriben iz dos leed mit blut und nit mit bly,
S'iz nit keyn leedl fun a foygel oyf der fry;
Dos hut a folk tzvishen falendi-ke vent,
Dos leed gezungen mit naganes in di hent.
 
Zog nit keyn mol az du gayst dem letzten veg,
Ven himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg;
Kumen vet noch undzer oysgebenkte shuh,
Es vet a poyk tun undzer trot -- mir zaynen do!
https://lyricstranslate.com

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English translation by Aaron Kremer
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Never say that there is only death for you,
Though leaden skies may be concealing days of blue,
Because the hour we have hungered for is near;
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble — we are here!

From land of palm tree to the far-off land of snow,
We shall be coming with our torment and our woe;
And everywhere our blood has sunk into the earth,
Shall our bravery, our vigor blossom forth.

We’ll have the morning sun to set our day aglow,
And all our yesterdays shall vanish with the foe;
And if the time is long before the sun appears,
Then let this song go like a signal through the years.

This song was written with blood and not with lead;
It’s not a song that summer birds sing overhead;
It was a people among toppling barricades,
That sang this song of ours with pistols and grenades.

Never say that there is only death for you,
Though leaden skies may be concealing days of blue,
Because the hour we have hungered for is near;
Beneath our tread the earth shall tremble, — we are here!

Te reo Māori translation by  Hēmi Kelly

​Kaua rawa e mea ko te mate anahe tō huarahi,
Ahakoa āraia ana te kiko o te rangi e te pōuriuri,
Kei te tata mai te wā kua roa e tāria ana;
Ka rū te whenua i te takahi a ngā wae – ki te haka!
 
Mai i te whenua o te nīkau, ki te whenua kōkēi o te huka,
E haere nei mātou i runga i te kōharihari me te tiwhatiwha;
Katoa ngā wāhi i pipī ai ō mātou toto ki te papa,
Ka puāwai mai i reira tō mātou māia me tō mātou kaha.
 
Ka whiti tonu te rā i te ata, ka ao te rangi,
Katoa ngā raru o nanahi ka ngaro me te hoa kakari;
Ā, ki te roa te wā i mua i te aranga mai anō o te rā,
Tukua mā tēnei wai ngā tau e whakaaomārama.
 
I titongia ai tēnei waiata ki te toto, kaua ki te matā;
Ehara i te waiata e haria ai e ngā manu o ō te raumati rā
Engari nā te iwi i te kauhanga riri a Tū,
Tēnei waiata a mātou i hari ki te pū me te pohū.
 
Kaua rawa e mea ko te mate anahe tō huarahi,
Ahakoa āraia ana te kiko o te rangi e te pōuriuri,
Kei te tata mai te wā kua roa e tāria ana;
Ka rū te whenua i te takahi a ngā wae – ki te haka!

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November 9th 2020: Kristallnacht Commemorative Concert - Resilience & Reinvention

Further details in our Archive

Classical and jazz music composed by leading Jewish European composers who fled the Holocaust and reinvented themselves in Hollywood, where they wrote the music for some of the greatest blockbusters, and influenced film music forever.

A multimedia experience, with visual excerpts from  films and a jazz tribute to Blue Note Records, New York - jazz’s iconic label, co-founded by German-Jewish immigrants Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff.

This concert commemorates Kristallnacht and the beginning­ of the destruction of European Jewry and is dedicated to the music of these Hollywood composers including  Weinberg, Korngold, Toch, Rózsa, Waxman and Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Presented by HCNZ in partnership with Te Kōki-the New Zealand School of Music - Victoria University of Wellington, and supported by the Public Trust Hall and the Adam Foundation. 

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November 10th 2019
Kristallnacht Commemorative Concert - A concert of unity

Further details in our Archive

Thank you to the following sponsors and suppliers: Adam Foundation,  Wellington Jewish Community Centre,  Wellington City Council,  Grouse Lighting, Peter Frater, GracePR and Hiremaster.
Photos: Holocaust Centre of New Zealand

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Kristallnacht Concert - November 2018

Music, remembrance and hope

With the theme of “music, remembrance and hope”, the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand’s 2018 Kristallnacht concert met all three qualities to the highest degree.
 
For this 80th anniversary of the horrifying events of 9-10 November 1938, the programme’s eight items covered a range of music by Jewish composers – two of whom perished in the Shoah (Holocaust) – and ranged from Gustav Mahler’s teenage piano quartet to the final piece, “Violins of hope,” by Israeli Ohad Ben-Ari which was first performed in Berlin on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2015.
 

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