Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This is a memorial. (Unintelligible sentence).
So you see (reading) "In memory of the martyrs and fighters
of the Vilna Ghetto, 1941-1943"
There are different opinions. Some feel that there should be giant memorials.
You'll go to the 9th fort in Kovne/Kaunas. There's a huge memorial there.
The Soviets built it. There's another memorial at the (?) courtyard.
So you can see that one too.
For me, personally, a simple one like this is better.
And every time we come to the ghetto, this is the memorial.
It isn't it's size that shows (gives it its importance).
Now I'll show you a new memorial.
This memorial has no relation to the ghetto.
Rather it's a memorial to Dr. Zemach (Tsemakh) Shabad.
You know (Max) Weinreich, the director of YIVO.
This is the father of his wife Regina.
Dr. Zemach Shabad was very famous in Vilna.
He was a medical doctor but he was very involved in societal affairs.
He published a magazine "folksgezunt" (people's health/public health)
He organized TOS, the Jewish health organization.
He greatly helped the poor. He used to not take money from poor patients.
Rather he'd give them money so they could buy medicine.
He was one of the founders of YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute).
When we go on the Jewish Vilna tour we'll be....
Weinreich was his son in law
And I must tell you that I am very proud that his wife Regina
was one of my teachers.
And her mother, Shabad's wife Shifre was also one of my teachers.
I was often a guest in Weinreich's home.
So why is there a child and a cat?
Kids would come to him if their cats or dogs got sick
and bring them as well.
There's a Russian poet (Korney Chukovsky) who wrote a poem
entitled "Dr. it hurts." There's a ballet right now in Vilna
with the same title in Lithuanian.
A ballet about a doctor who travels to Africa, heals animals.
So that's why they made it with a cat.
The memorial was recently unveiled.