Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

It's incredible how the tango has conquered the world – from its origins in Buenos Aires to Paris, Helsinki, Istanbul and beyond. Between the wars (1918-1939), Warsaw became the capital of Yiddish tango with some 3,000 written, mainly by Polish Jews. The style of these is the inspiration for the nine tangos on this album with lyrics created from memories of women who lived through the Holocaust. The striking title-song is about a woman and her children who are hiding in the forest but lose each other and can't call out for fear of being discovered. Five of the songs are based on the memories of Molly Applebaum, who was hidden with her cousin by a local farmer in a small wooden box in a farm. ‘Tell Me, Where Can I Go?’ is about this experience. By hiding them, the Polish farmer risked his life, but he also sexually abused the girls, the subject of ‘Don't Let Us Starve’.

This project was put together in Toronto, Canada. Lenka Lichtenberg, is probably the best known of the singers, but there are three other vocalists, accompanied by piano, violin, bandoneón and double bass. Violinist Rebekah Wolkstein wrote the music for four of the songs while ‘Romani Waltz’, by Artur Gold who died in Treblinka, is an instrumental tribute, featuring Moldovan accordionist Sergiu Popa, to the Roma killed in the Holocaust. Despite the grim stories behind this album, the music is touching, beautiful and sensitively performed. The final haunting song ‘Don't Let Us Starve’ really stays in the mind.