Preserving songs from the Holocaust

Singing Up the Past premiered at the Jewish International Film Festival on November 12 in Sydney and November 14 in Melbourne. The short film documentary poignantly tells the story of Guta Goldstein (Kopel)’s life and her survival of the Holocaust, and how her memories were preserved through song.

Guta was born in Lodz and faced many hardships – her mother passed away when she was seven, and WWII broke out when she was just nine. During the war she was imprisoned with her father and sister Munia in the Lodz ghetto. Her father died from pneumonia and the sisters were sent to an orphanage in the ghetto where Munia died from measles. Guta was later sent to Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen and Mehltheuer.

In the film we see Guta visibly moved as she recalls songs from that painful time. She remembers the song her father sang on Shabbat, the songs the children sang in the orphanage, and the songs sung in concentration camps. “We were singing because we were hungry, we were singing because we were sad, we were singing anytime. That was the only thing that made you happy,” Guta said.

Speaking to The AJN, producer Dr Joseph Toltz said the idea for the film came from a conversation with his friend Australian filmmaker Tim Slade in 2019.

“Originally, we were proposing for Guta to go back to Lodz and us film her visiting the places of her childhood. Then the pandemic arrived, and this changed the whole trajectory of the film … Eventually we realised that Guta didn’t really have to travel anywhere – the story is about her, not about place, and centring it around her became the imperative.”

Discussing the importance of Guta’s story Toltz said, “Guta keeps a repertoire of songs alive by singing them on a regular basis – to herself during her day-to-day activities, and to her children and grandchildren. It’s a large collection – 40 or more, mostly popular songs from her childhood, in Polish and Yiddish. Guta uses songs to bring memories back, and she safely connects with her (often traumatic) past in this manner, in order to fulfil the imperative to remember those who have gone before us … I wanted those songs to live for many years to come, and they will do so now.”

The film has the Children’s Choir of Lodz singing the music, and Toltz commented that the children “could not have been more dedicated and committed”.

Its director Tim Slade said it was important for him to make the film “because it shed light on an overall theme that I felt was not well explored – music as a tool of survival – and because it was in the context of this truly remarkable human being.”

Goldstein is now 94 and living in Melbourne. She came to Australia after the war, marrying Ludwik “Lou” Goldstein in 1949, and has two daughters, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Guta told The AJN, “I believe that the events of the Holocaust should never be forgotten and need to be told. I feel that as the sole survivor of my family, I have a duty and responsibility to remember those who perished.

“The songs that were written by Jewish people in ghettos and other circumstances in which they found themselves, are precious moments of history from a specific period in time. Most of them were not written down and it is actually my privilege to have helped bring them to life … I’m so happy that the songs will now be preserved forever.”

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