The Harmonica Player from Auschwitz

In 1993, Holocaust survivor Shmuel Gogol visited Auschwitz. He was filled with memories of the anguish of his early years. Shmuel's mother died when he was a young boy and soon after his father was forced to leave Poland. Shmuel was brought to Janusz Korczak's orphanage where he heard a harmonica being played for the first time. His first harmonica was a gift from Dr. Korczak. Several months later the Germans entered Warsaw.
Gogol managed to run away and hide, but he was captured and deported to Auschwitz where his harmonica was seized upon arrival. One night Gogol heard another inmate playing the harmonica. He traded his meager daily ration of bread for a harmonica of his own.
But Gogol was quickly caught by a camp guard, ordered to join the Auschwitz orchestra and forced to play while Jews were led to the gas chambers. He was playing when he saw his cousins being marched past him. Gogol promised that if he survived he would dedicate his life to teaching Jewish children to play the harmonica. Gogol went on to establish the Ramat Gan Harmonica Choir. The choir performs at Yad Vashem, paying tribute to the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, becoming part of Yad Vashem's ongoing efforts to keep the stories of the Shoah alive for generations to come. Shmuel Gogol died in 1993, just one month after his visit to Auschwitz, but his melodies and his music live on - echoing throughout the Mount of Remembrance and reverberating in the hearts of those who hear the children play.

[@von-Adler]

It's a good story. I have never heard of a man or boy in the female orchestra as in 'Playing for time'. I also fail to inderstand how being completely naked upon induction that the first man kept a harmonica? Who knows?

[@QuangLe-nm7ck]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏