Before the Holocaust, Moshe Gildenman was the leader of a Jewish craftsmen organization, the founder of a concrete plant and a musician in the small town in Korets, Ukraine. Tragedy struck in 1942 when Nazis murdered more than 2,000 Jews in his village on a single day, including his wife and daughter.
With just a revolver, a handful of bullets and a Yiddish songbook, Gildenman later escaped to the woods. Until then, he had never held a weapon in his life — but he went on to help liberate Ukraine from the Nazis during WWII and become a guerrilla war hero.
UNC Charlotte professor James Grymes charts Gildenman’s unique story of resistance and the music he wrote along the way in a new book titled "Partisan Song: A Holocaust Story of Resilience, Resistance, and Revenge."
We sit down with Grymes to learn about the unique history of a largely forgotten war hero.
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James Grymes, professor of musicology at UNC Charlotte and author of Partisan Song: A Holocaust Story of Resilience, Resistance, and Revenge
