Henny Durmashkin Gurko

Henny Gurko (née Durmashkin) was born into a prominent musical family in Vilna on November 16, 1923. During the war, she was deported from the Vilna ghetto to Kaiserwald, the first in a series of concentration camps where she was subjected to forced labor. As an accomplished opera singer, Gurko was also compelled to sing with an orchestra for SS officers. After liberation, she continued to perform with the orchestra in displaced persons camps. In 1950, Gurko and her sister—the only two members of their immediate family to survive the war—immigrated to the U.S. Gurko settled in New Jersey and married Simon Gurko. She died on August 8, 2002, survived by her three children and six grandchildren.

Biography

Henny Gurko (née Durmashkin) was born into a prominent musical family in Vilna on November 16, 1923. During the war, she was deported from the Vilna ghetto to Kaiserwald, the first in a series of concentration camps where she was subjected to forced labor. As an accomplished opera singer, Gurko was also compelled to sing with an orchestra for SS officers. After liberation, she continued to perform with the orchestra in displaced persons camps. In 1950, Gurko and her sister—the only two members of their immediate family to survive the war—immigrated to the U.S. Gurko settled in New Jersey and married Simon Gurko. She died on August 8, 2002, survived by her three children and six grandchildren.