Paper Brigade's Story of Cultural Rescue Comes to Stage
Translated & summarized from Srugim by baba
A new musical play titled "The Paper Brigade" will soon debut, dramatizing the story of a group of Jewish intellectuals in the Vilna Ghetto who risked their lives to save cultural artifacts. The production features songs from the Holocaust era, with singers like Rotem Sharabi performing. Initiated by Hadas Calderon, granddaughter of the brigade's leader Abraham Sutzkever, the play connects the past's cultural preservation efforts with contemporary experiences of loss. The salvaged materials are now housed in major libraries worldwide.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- A new musical play, "The Paper Brigade," will soon premiere, telling the story of Jewish intellectuals who saved cultural treasures in the Vilna Ghetto.
- The production highlights the "Paper Brigade's" efforts to smuggle rare books, manuscripts, and artworks from Nazi destruction.
- Hadas Calderon, granddaughter of brigade leader Abraham Sutzkever, initiated and directed the play.
- Singer Rotem Sharabi performs "Under the Glow of My Sky's Stars," the Vilna Ghetto's anthem.
- The play connects the Holocaust's cultural rescue mission to contemporary experiences of loss.
- Salvaged cultural materials are preserved today in institutions like the National Library in Jerusalem.
A new musical play, "The Paper Brigade," will soon premiere, recounting the extraordinary story of the "Paper Brigade", a group of Jewish poets and intellectuals who risked their lives in the Vilna Ghetto to save cultural treasures from Nazi destruction. The production, developed over three years by young musicians and creators from the Rimon School of Music under the musical and artistic direction of Hadas Calderon and Ohad Hitman, brings to the stage songs written during the Holocaust, with composers setting new music to the works of period poets and learning to sing in Yiddish.
The play was initiated by Hadas Calderon, granddaughter of Abraham Sutzkever, the leader of the Paper Brigade. Calderon also co-wrote and directed the production, viewing it as a personal and familial journey into the legacy of her grandparents, Frida and Abraham Sutzkever. The play revisits pre-war Vilna, once known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," and its vibrant cultural centers where Jewish heritage was created and preserved.
Singer Rotem Sharabi, niece of hostages Yossi and Eli Sharabi, performs in the play, singing "Under the Glow of My Sky's Stars," which served as the anthem of the Vilna Ghetto. Sharabi, who has personally experienced loss from the October 7th events, imbues the Yiddish song with new life, connecting the national tragedy of the Holocaust to contemporary loss.
The Paper Brigade was a clandestine group of writers and intellectuals forced by the Nazis to sort Jewish cultural artifacts for destruction. Instead, they chose to smuggle rare books, manuscripts, and artworks, including works by Sholem Aleichem, the Vilna Gaon, Hayim Nahman Bialik, Y.L. Peretz, Theodor Herzl's diary, and ancient religious texts. The play centers on Abraham Sutzkever, his wife Frida, Shmerke Kaczerginski, and their comrades, who strove to preserve Jewish creativity amidst impossible circumstances.
It depicts the creation of songs like "Quiet, Quiet, My Son, Let Us Be Silent," "Ponar," "Frühling," and "Do Not Say This Is My Last Path." The narrative also covers the group's escape to the forests after the ghetto uprising and the special Soviet plane mission that heroically rescued Abraham and Frida Sutzkever. Calderon emphasized that her grandfather and Kaczerginski understood the Nazi aim to erase Jewish roots and led the brigade to smuggle cultural treasures to safe locations, ensuring their preservation today in institutions like the National Library in Jerusalem.
"The Paper Brigade" aims to highlight that even in the darkest times, individuals fought not only for survival but to safeguard memory, language, and culture. Their efforts to save words are now being honored as their stories and songs return to the stage. The production is a collaboration between Yiddishpiel Theatre, the Rimon School, the National Authority for Yiddish Culture, and the A.Y. Lerner Foundation.