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Artur Gold and Wladyslaw Szpilman
The Conductor and The Pianist
This poster from the Nowoczesna Restaurant on Nowolipki 10 in the Warsaw Ghetto lists Artur Gold and Wladislaw Szpilman as performers, and both men had tragic links with the Treblinka death camp. « Click text above for enlarged view.
Artur Gold
Artur Gold
Artur Gold was born in Warsaw in 1897 he was the son of Michal and Helena. In 1922 he established a jazz band with his cousin Jerzy Petersbuski, which became very popular, and he studied in London, and recorded for “Columbia Records” in Hayes, near London.
From 1929 performed in the famous “Adria” in Warsaw, and during the 1930’s composed popular songs like “Autumn Roses.” Gold lived and worked with his brothers Adam and Henryk, also musicians at 122 Chmielna Street in Warsaw.
In 1940 he was forced to move to the Warsaw ghetto, where he performed in the “Nowoczesna” restaurant. In 1942 he was transported to Treblinka where he was forced to play for the SS, and to form a small orchestra, which played at roll calls and gave special concerts to the SS and prisoners.
Gold was murdered in Treblinka during 1943.
A description of Gold’s arrival at Treblinka as recalled by Samuel Willenberg:
“A new transport from Warsaw provided us the fifty men we needed to round off the prisoner contingent in the camp, which had dwindled greatly as a result of the many on-site executions carried out by the guards.
Among the new men was the famous Warsaw musician Artur Gold. The moment Kuttner ordered fifty young men to be taken out of the transport, the “Reds” who had known Gold back in Warsaw, made sure to include him.
There he stood clutching a violin to his chest. That day after roll-call Kurt Franz shouted, “The conductor out!”
Petersbuski-Gold Orchestra Gold in back row on left.
At the sound of this, Gold and two other prisoners stepped out of line and faced us. Even before this we had thought it strange that they had not ordered us to sing “Aren’t you sad mountain man?” as we always did after roll-call, and the camp anthem “Fester Schritt.”
Gold and the other two prisoners added up to a violin trio, though a grotesquely dressed one in the standard prisoner uniform of rags and high-cut boots procured in the sorting-yard. Now they mounted a small wooden platform which was hardly big enough for them.
Behind them was a hut with little grated windows. Besides them on the ground, stood the whipping stool where the Germans punished prisoners.
The trio of musicians began to play popular pre-war tunes, which reminded the prisoners of years gone by, that left us depressed and sore of heart. The Germans were pleased with themselves they had succeeded in organising an orchestra in the death camp.
Read the full story here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/gold&szpilman.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
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