Grundig radio

The Grundig radio was a battered German-made table model shortwave receiver, with rounded edges, a cloth register over the speaker, and a dial that raised or lowered a bar up and down an illuminated scale of shortwave frequencies. It was kept hidden inside a wall in the attic dormitory over the council offices of the Kovno Ghetto, a secret known to Josef Barbanel and the boys who assisted him, though Dr. Koenig, who knew and approved of Barbanel's secret archive, either did not know about the radio or pretended not to. The radio was plugged into a socket affixed to the dormitory's one light fixture, and the boys had several training practices in closing it down quickly in case of discovery.

Secret Operation and Ritual

Two or three nights a week, Barbanel would climb the ladder to the boys' quarters, and they would assist him as he pried open the wall board to expose the radio. The operation was carefully guarded: one boy always kept watch at the window, and another stationed himself beside the door to listen for any sounds below. Barbanel would sit cross-legged on the floor with his earphones on, listening with his eyes closed to the late-night British news broadcast. The boys studied his face intently, trying to learn from his expression whether the news was good or bad, watching him nod or shake his head or lift his fist in silence, sitting through fifteen minutes of this, totally rapt, fearless and, above all, connected in spirit to the rest of the world.

Morale and Spiritual Significance

There were immeasurable gains to the boys' morale in having that secret radio, which Barbanel understood. The radio was not merely a source of information but a lifeline of spirit, allowing the ghetto's inhabitants to feel connected to the wider world beyond their confinement. The narrator describes feeling as if he could see into the glowing radio as into a window on the outside world, a fragile but crucial link to hope and to the knowledge that the war was progressing. The radio's presence in the attic transformed the dormitory into a place of clandestine communion, where the boys could participate, however passively, in the larger struggle against their oppressors.

The Radio and the Archive

The Grundig radio stood in stark contrast to Barbanel's other secret project, the ghetto archive. While the archive was a record of the ghetto's life meant to survive its destruction, the radio was a living connection to the present moment, a means of knowing what was happening beyond the ghetto walls. The narrator notes that neither Barbanel nor Greta Margolin was to survive the destruction of the ghetto, and that the archive papers remain hidden in the earth of Eastern Europe to this day. The radio, by contrast, was a tool of the moment, its value lying not in preservation but in the immediate, shared experience of listening. The narrator's memory of the radio is inseparable from his memory of Barbanel's presence, the immediacy of the breathing being of him, and the greatness of life that the ordinary couple embodied.

Narrative Role and Thematic Resonance

The Grundig radio functions as a powerful symbol of resistance through connection. In a setting where the ghetto's inhabitants were systematically cut off from the world, the radio represented a defiance of isolation, a refusal to be reduced to the status of the pre-dead. The narrator's description of the radio's operation emphasizes the ritualistic care and danger surrounding each listening session, underscoring the stakes of this small act of rebellion. The radio also serves as a point of contrast with the archive: one looks forward to preservation, the other to immediate knowledge; one is hidden in the earth, the other was hidden in a wall. Together they represent two modes of survival—one through memory, the other through presence. The narrator's inability to convey the living presence of Barbanel and Greta Margolin, their greatness of life, is poignantly framed against the material objects they left behind, including the radio that once glowed in the dark attic, connecting the ghetto to the world.