Newsday: Piece by Holocaust Survivor to be Performed for First Time

Months before the Russian invasion, Long Islander Andrea Bolender went to Ukraine to visit Babi Yar, the ravine outside Kyiv, where on Sept. 29-30, 1941, German Nazis slaughtered 33,771 Jews.

Bolender, who is chair of the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County in Glen Cove, was part of an American delegation to the site.

Among those at the ceremonies was Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, himself a Jew.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February and the history of the Holocaust both highlight the importance of a concert the memorial center will host April 20 at Carnegie Hall titled "Hymns from Auschwitz," Bolender said. The concert is tied to Holocaust Remembrance Day. Special to it is a piece, written in 1947 by Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp survivor Michel Assael, called "Auschwitz Symphonic Poem." It will be performed for the first time.