"Children's voices need to be heard" Israel today

The musician Efi Shoshani composed songs written about me by children in the Terezin ghetto • Meshi Kleinstein performs one of the songs - written by Zdenek Orenstein, a boy who survived Auschwitz

• Silk Kleinstein in the clip for the song "Asher Skek"

  Photo: 

  Eden Mazur

In recent years, the musician Efi Shoshani, a son of Holocaust survivors, has been holding an artistic dialogue with the memory of the Holocaust.

It started with him about ten years ago, when he traveled to the city of Terezin in the former Czechoslovakia with the book "There are no butterflies here" which combines songs and paintings of the children of the Terezin ghetto.

During the journey he composed 12 of the songs (translated into Hebrew by Leah Goldberg).

Two years ago, Shoshani was a friend of the historian Rachel Orenstein, who works in the field of the Holocaust, and together they produced a musical show that came up at Yad Vashem and is based on these songs.

The two later created the project "When Memory Meets Art", in which five clips were produced.

Each of them tells the story of the child who wrote it. 

To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, a new song and music video is being released as part of the project, performed by Meshi Kleinstein, entitled "Asher Shek".

The words were written by Zdenek Orenstein in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) ghetto.

Zdenek was sent to Auschwitz and survived.

After the war he returned to Prague where he lived until 1991, when he passed away. 

"This is the most sophisticated song in the book," says Shoshani.

This is a child who asks the memory to give greetings to his beloved outside the ghetto. A 14-year-old boy who writes such an abstract text - it is inconceivable to me 

.

Many of these songs are just sad songs unrelated to the Holocaust.

If I can bring a song written by a child in the ghetto - there is no reason not to play it in ceremonies.

We need to produce content for the next generation. "

According to Meshi Kleinstein," The memory of the Holocaust is becoming more important and meaningful to me year after year.

It was important for me to participate in this project, which reflects the voices of children who went through unbearable experiences during the Holocaust.

It is important that the voice of the children be echoed, and that the children of Israel know that everything must be done so that what happened will not happen again. "