'Degenerate Musik' commemorates those who died in Holocaust

4/13/2018
BY NICKI GORNY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
  • REL-yom24p

    Aron Wajskol, a holocaust survivor, lights a remembrance candle as they celebrate Yom Ha'Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, at Congregation B'nai Israel on April 24, 2006.

    The Blade
    Buy This Image

  • Noreen, on cello, and Phillip Silver on piano are known as the Silver Duo. They will perform the works of musicians and composers who died in the Holocaust in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
    Noreen, on cello, and Phillip Silver on piano are known as the Silver Duo. They will perform the works of musicians and composers who died in the Holocaust in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

    Celebration of Israel’s Independence Day is tempered by a more somber anniversary this month: Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, fell on Wednesday and Thursday.

    A local community observance and candle-lighting is set for 4 p.m. Sunday at Congregation B’nai Israel, 6525 Sylvania Ave. Admission is free.

    Yom HaShoah commemorates the lives of the 6 million Jewish people and other targeted groups who were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 to 1945. The local observance is titled “Degenerate Musik: Silenced Composers of the Holocaust.” It features Phillip and Noreen Silver on piano and cello. The couple, who are known as the Silver Duo, perform the works of musicians and composers who died in the Holocaust.

    Their research has played a significant role in the preservation of this music, much of which was declared “degenerate” and banned by the Nazis; Jewish artists and musicians were fired, their works defamed, and their recordings forbidden, according to the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo and the Ruth Fajerman Markowicz Holocaust Resource Center of Greater Toledo, which are presenting the observance.

    Attendees will also have the opportunity to view Holocaust-related artwork created by students at McCord Junior High School in Sylvania, who with their teacher, Kate Strausbaugh, have been learning about the Holocaust. The students each selected a book on the topic, then created art related to the book, according to Hindea Markowicz, resource center director.