Andrzej Włast (born #OTD 1895) was a Polish Jewish songwriter. He wrote the lyrics for the 1929 hit song "Tango Milonga" / "Oh, Donna Clara". He died in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
Artur Gold had been at the peak of a promising career when the Nazis invaded Poland. Born #OTD in 1897, he established a jazz band in the 20s. By the 30s, he had established himself as a composer of popular songs, and was in demand in the clubs of Warsaw.
Pianist and composer Ferdinand Piesen was born #OTD in 1909. In 1930 two of his works for violin and piano were performed at the Wiener Konzerthaus. From 1934 he composed for cabaret. In 1937 he went into exile in France and was interned in various camps.
Revue artist, producer, and singer Hans Hofer was born #OTD in 1907. Up until 1941, Hofer performed in the "Jewish cabaret" in Prague but in 1942 was deported to Terezin where he founded his own cabaret, Hofer Kabarett.
Revue artist and comic actor Karel Švenk was born #OTD in 1917. He was deported to Terezin on 24 Nov 1941 where he composed cabarets and wrote the play The Last Cyclist, banned for its subject matter. Deported to Auschwitz on 1 Oct 1944, he died in 1945.
Holocaust-Komponisten" wie Ullmann, Haas oder Schulhoff waren in erster Linie Musiker, der wichtigste Teil ihrer Identität, und sollten als Musiker gewürdigt werden.
Das illustrierte "Deggendorfer Liederbuch" ist sowohl ein faszinierendes Artefakt als auch eine visuelle Aufzeichnung des kulturellen Lebens und der sozialen Rehabilitation in den DP-Lagern.
Politische Regime verwenden Hymnen als Symbole für ihre Werte und Bestrebungen. Als Frankreich durch den Krieg geteilt war, wurden drei Hymnen zwischen Nord und Süd angenommen.
Der Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus stellte viele jüdische Komponisten vor die Qual der Wahl: bleiben und sich einer unbekannten Zukunft in einem zunehmend feindlichen Regime unterwerfen oder ins Exil gehen.
Im Guten wie im Schlechten war das BBC-Radio während des Zweiten Weltkriegs die dominierende Stimme Großbritanniens, für die klassische Musik eine wichtige und aufschlussreiche Rolle spielte.
Untersucht die Verbindung von visueller und musikalischer Symbolik und konzentriert sich dabei auf die Art und Weise, wie der Film Jojo Rabbit populäre Musik und visuelle und vokale Ikonen des Holocausts verwendet.
Brundibár is a children's opera written in 1938 and composed by Hans Krása with lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister. Its premiere in Terezín was on 23 September 1943.
Bunalied was written in mortal danger in the Buna-Monowitz subcamp of Auschwitz with lyrics by Fritz Löhner-Beda and music by Anton Geppert.
Der Komponist Henech Kon (1890-1970) zog vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nach New York, wo er zu den eingewanderten Schriftstellern und Künstlern gehörte, die vor den Nazis geflohen waren. Er komponierte weiterhin Stücke zum Gedenken an die Vernichtung des polnischen Judentums.
Jonas Turkow (1898-1987) was an actor, stage manager, director and writer. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for his contributions to Yiddish letters.
Diana Blumenfeld (1903–1961) was a folksinger, pianist, and actress. Caught in the ghetto along with her husband, family and friends, she continued to sing, performing in cafes and in the ghetto theatre.
Yankl Krimski was a theatre artist and musician in the Vilna ghetto. One of his most popular songs was 'Dos Elnte Kind' (The Lonely Child). Krimski’s fate is uncertain, but he is believed to have perished in an Estonian labour camp in 1943.
Poet, actor and songwriter Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942) was politically active and called 'the perfect Jewish folk poet'. His songs provide a window into daily Jewish life in inter-war Poland.
Isa Vermehren (1918-2009) volunteered to support the German troops as an entertainer between 1940 and 1943. Due to her brother's defection she was taken to Ravensbrück, where she was locked in an isolation cell.
Actor Paul Morgan (1886-1938) studied theatre and writing, and began performing in small theatres and cabarets before World War I. He died in Buchenwald concentration camp.
One of the few surviving Jewish members of the cabaret scene of 1920s Vienna, Herman Leopoldi (1888-1959) was interned in two of Nazi Germany’s most notorious camps but obtained a last-minute release.
In 1942 Cantor Benzion Moskovitsh (1907-1968) was deported to Westerbork and in 1944 to Buchenwald. There he sang for fellow prisoners and took notes of melodies he heard on a smuggled block-note.
Cantor Yehoshua Wieder and his family were deported to Auschwitz, where his wife Chana and three youngest children were killed. Wieder and his three other children survived.
Cantor Charles Lowy (1911-1998) escaped Munich after Kristallnacht to Hungary and became chief cantor in Szolnok. From 1942 he was subjected to forced labour and liberated by the Red Army in 1945. His wife and son were killed in Auschwitz.
Gershon Sirota (1874-1943) was one of the leading cantors of Europe during the "Golden Age of Hazzanut", sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Caruso". He and his family died together in the Warsaw uprising in 1943.
When the war broke out Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942) fled to France then retreated to Switzerland. Although in possession of an American visa and well known, he was interned and, owing to a lack of medical attention, he died on 16 November 1942.
Composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) grew up and was educated in Vienna. He was trapped in Prague on the German invasion in March 1939 after trying unsuccessfully to find work in London or South Africa. In 1942 he was deported to Terezin.
In December 1941, pianist, composer and conductor Carlo Sigmund Taube (1897-1944) was deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and child.
In spring 1944, composer, pianist and musicologist James Simon (1880-1944) was sent to Westerbork. On April 4 he was deported with 1000 other inmates to Terezín. On 12 October 1944 he boarded the transport to Auschwitz.
The composer and violinist Zikmund Schul (1916-1944) and his father left Germany in October 1933, taking residence in Prague. He was transported to Terezín on 11 November 1941 where he continued to compose pieces, few of which survive.
Rafael Schächter (1905-1944) made his name as an accompanist and vocal coach, working in opera and theatre before deportation to Terezin in Nov 1941. A pioneer of cultural life in the ghetto, he was deported to Auschwitz on 16 Oct 1944.
Egon Ledeč (1889-1944) was a Czech violinist and composer sent to Theresienstadt. He appears as the concertmaster in Karel Ančerl’s orchestra in the Nazi propaganda film of the camp.
After spending several years in Terezin being active in its musical life, Hans Krasa (1899-1944) left for Auschwitz on 16 October 1944 with his fellow composers Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein.
At age 6, Gideon Klein's (1919-1945) precocious musicality was evident and he began to study piano with the head of the Přerov conservatory. He was an organiser of cultural life at Theresienstadt.
Dovid Ayznshtat (1890–1942) continued to compose, conduct, perform, and train aspiring musicians, in the Warsaw Ghetto, despite the limitations and dangers of ghetto life.
The conductor and composer Misha Veksler (1907-1943) became an important figure in the musical world of the Vilna ghetto, serving as the conductor of the theatre orchestra and composing music for many of the revues that were performed there.
Wolf Durmashkin (1914-1944) war ein jüdischer Komponist, Dirigent und Pianist in Vilnius. Er wurde während der Liquidierung des Wilnaer Ghettos nach Klooga deportiert und kam einen Tag vor der Befreiung ums Leben.
Conductor and pianist Teodor Ryder (1881-1944) was deportated to the Łódź ghetto in 1940. He continued to perform and organise even after the death of his wife and gave his final concert in the summer of 1943.
The violinist Alma Rosé (1906-1944) luck came to an end when she was arrested in France and sent to Drancy for several months. In July 1943, she was transported to Auschwitz.
The Polish music teacher Zofia Czajkowska arrived in Auschwitz on 27 April 1942 on a transport from her home town of Tarnow. She was to become the original organiser and first conductor of the Birkenau women’s orchestra.
Polish musician Adam Kopyciński (1907-1982) was conductor of the men's orchestra in Auschwitz. He struggled with the morality of a death camp orchestra knowing that rejecting a musician could well mean his death.
Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) war ein jüdischer, deutschstämmiger Dirigent und Komponist, der als "der letzte der wenigen wirklich großen Dirigenten seiner Generation" bezeichnet wurde. Im April 1933 floh er nach Österreich und ließ Frau und Kinder zurück, um ihnen zu folgen, sobald er einen festen Wohnsitz gefunden hatte.
In 1933, Rosebury D’Arguto’s activities with his Gesangsgemeinschaft was banned. On a return trip to Germany to settle some personal matters in September 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo, and taken to Sachsenhausen where he organized a Jewish choir.
A cabaret artist, theatre and film actor and director of theatre and early sound movies, Kurt Gerron (1897-1944) was a successful entertainer of the 1920s and early 1930s. He directed the Terezin propaganda film and was killed soon after.
Actor, director and leftist activist Wolfgang Langhoff (1901-1966) engaged in cultural activities in Börgemoor, organising the ‘Zirkus Konzentrazani’, as well as co-creating the song ‘Moorsoldatenlied’.
Der Musiker Walter Starkie, der "El British" gründete und sich mit General Franco traf, um den kulturellen Austausch zwischen Großbritannien und Spanien zu formalisieren. Starkies Bemühungen trugen dazu bei, dass Spanien während des Zweiten Weltkriegs neutral blieb.
Dame Julia Myra Hess, DBE (1890-1965) war eine englische Pianistin, die vor allem für ihre Interpretationen der Werke von Bach, Mozart, Beethoven und Schumann bekannt war. Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs veranstaltete sie Konzerte in der National Gallery, um die Stimmung zu heben.
Mit Erlaubnis von Göring konnte Heinz Tietjen Leo Blech trotz seiner jüdischen Herkunft weiter beschäftigen. Er wurde „aus Altersgründen“ entlassen und ging ins Exil nach Riga, wo er als erster Gast der Nationaloper zahlreiche erfolgreiche Opern dirigierte.
Die Dreigroschenoper wurde von dem Dichter und Dramatiker Bertolt Brecht in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Komponisten Kurt Weill im Jahr 1928 geschrieben. Fünf Jahre später waren sie beide im Exil.
Bruno Walter Schlesinger (1879-1962) war ab 1898 Musiktheaterdirektor und einige Jahre später Direktor der Bayerischen Staatsoper. Von den Nazis auf die schwarze Liste gesetzt, ging er 1938 in die USA, wo er die New Yorker Philharmoniker dirigierte.
Kurt Weill (1900-1950) und Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) stehen wie wenige andere für die kulturelle Innovation der Weimarer Republik. Vor allem mit ihrer Dreigroschenoper verkörperte das Duo alles, was die Nationalsozialisten zu ihrem Feind erklärten.
Der Komponist Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) gilt zusammen mit Berg und Webern als die Zweite Wiener Schule. Seine revolutionäre musikalische Technik der Dodekaphonie (Zwölftonmusik) war sein Markenzeichen.
Der österreichische Komponist der berühmten Jazz-Oper Jonny spielt auf, Enrst Krenek (1900-1991), emigrierte 1938 in die USA, nachdem seine Musik von den Nazis verboten worden war. Er unterrichtete an mehreren Universitäten und komponierte bis zu seinem Tod 1991 weiter.
Der Emigrantenkomponist Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996) ist im Alter von 93 Jahren in London gestorben. Er lebte in derselben Erdgeschosswohnung, seit er Deutschland im Oktober 1935 auf der Flucht vor den Nazis verlassen hatte.
Der marxistische Komponist Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) war im Januar 1933 in Wien, als Hitler deutscher Bundeskanzler wurde. Eisler blieb seinen kommunistischen Idealen treu und floh in den 1930er Jahren aus Nazi-Deutschland und in den 1940er Jahren aus Amerika.
Hans Gál (1890-1987) hatte vor 1933 großen beruflichen Erfolg. Nach der Machtübernahme durch die Nationalsozialisten wurde er als Direktor des Mainzer Konservatoriums entlassen und sein Werk mit Aufführungs- und Publikationsverbot belegt.
Paul Arma (1905-1987) ist eine zentrale Figur in der Geschichte der französischen Résistance-Musik, sowohl wegen der von ihm komponierten Lieder als auch wegen seiner Bemühungen um die Bewahrung des enormen Bestandes an Musik, der während des Krieges entstand. Arma sah in den Liedern der Résistance nicht nur Quellen der Hoffnung und Akte des Kriegsmuts, sondern auch wichtige Artefakte, die es zu retten galt.
Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) schrieb Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts" (1934), in dem er für die Vorherrschaft der "arischen" Rasse und die Bedrohung durch die Juden plädierte. Er wurde wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit für schuldig befunden und hingerichtet.
Der Komponist Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) sah sich als Verteidiger der deutschen Nation, ihrer Werte und ihrer Kultur gegen ein "entartetes" und "verdorbenes" Frankreich. In seinem Entnazifizierungsprozess wurde er, ebenso wie Furtwängler, Egk und Strauss, für nicht schuldig befunden.
Hans Joachim Moser (1889-1967) gab Amerika und den Juden die Schuld an der Kommerzialisierung der Musik. Sein Engagement für die Feierlichkeiten in Deutschland brachte ihm die Anerkennung der Nazis ein und er wurde zum Generalsekretär des Propagandaministeriums befördert.
Der Geiger und Dirigent Gustav Havemann (1882-1960) entwickelte sich von einem modernistischen Musiker und Freund radikaler jüdischer Komponisten zu einem engagierten NS-Musikideologen und schließlich nach dem Krieg zu einem glühenden Antifaschisten.
Herbert Gerigks (1905-1996) Lexikon der Juden in der Musik war so populär, dass bis 1943 Tausende von Exemplaren im gesamten Deutschen Reich kursierten. Selbst im Rahmen der NS-Ideologie war Gerigk als besonders konservativ und kritisch bekannt.
Der Autor des 1939 erschienenen Buches Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Mahler: Drei Kapitel des Judentums in der Musik als Schlüssel zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts begründete Karl Blessingers (1888-1962) Ruf als einer der prominentesten antisemitischen Musikwissenschaftler des Dritten Reiches.
Joseph Goebbels wollte alle Werke fördern, die von der deutschen Hegemonie in der Musik zeugten. Aus diesem Grund schützte er paradoxerweise zunächst Komponisten oder Dirigenten, die sich gegen die Anwendung der antisemitischen Gesetze wehrten, und verschleierte sogar die jüdische Herkunft einiger talentierter Komponisten oder schützte deren Ehefrauen.
Władysław Szlengel (1912-1943) was a Jewish-Polish poet, lyricist, journalist, and stage actor. He was shot along with his wife at the age of 28.
Avraham Sutzkever (1913-2010) is one of the most important contemporary Yiddish poets. During the war, Sutzkever was involved in many acts of resistance and helped save many important texts. He escaped to Moscow with his wife.
Leah Rudnitski (1916-1943) wrote one of the most beautiful lullabies to have survived the Vilna ghetto, entitled ‘Dremlen feygl oyf di tsvaygn’ (Birds doze on the boughs). She was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Treblinka, where she was murdered.
Poet and partisan fighter Shmerke Kaczerginski (1908-1954) was a collector of Yiddish Shoah song. He was sent to the Vilna ghetto in early 1942 where he crafted songs to console prisoners and encourage resistance.
Hirsch Glick (1922-1944) was a Jewish poet and partisan. He began to write Yiddish poetry in his teens and became co-founder of Yungvald, a group of young Jewish poets.
Writer, poet and teacher of Yiddish literature, Isaiah Spiegel (1906-1990), was an inmate of the Lodz Ghetto from its inception in 1940 until its liquidation in 1945. In August 1944, Shpigl hid some of his writings in a cellar and took the rest with him to Auschwitz.
An important poet and song writer in the Kovno ghetto, Moshe Diskant was critical of the divisions between wealthy and poor in the ghetto.
Avrom Akselrod was a well-known poet and songwriter in the Kovno ghetto, known for his cynical, humorous and realistic depictions of the misery and occasional joys of ghetto life.
Bass singer Karel Berman (1919-1995) was deported to Terezin on 6 Mar 1943. He sang in operas and recitals and was cast as 'Death' in Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Transported to Auschwitz on 28 Sep 1944 and liberated from the Allach camp.
Marysia Ayznshtat (1921-1942) war eine der bekanntesten Musikerinnen des Warschauer Ghettos. Sie wurde im Alter von einundzwanzig Jahren von einem SS-Offizier erschossen.
Khayele Rozental (1924-1979) was one of the most popular singers in the Vilna ghetto. She established her talents in drama and singing aged 16, when she was chosen to represent Vilna at the Festival of Songs in Moscow.
Soprano Lyube Levitski's beautiful voice made her a star at the age of 21. In the Vilna ghetto she was lashed, kept in solitary confinement for a month, and eventually killed at Ponar.
Kasriel Broydo (1907-1945) was a songwriter, singer and coupletist. He was born in Vilnius and played in various troupes and marionette-theaters.
In 1940, Yankele Hershkovitsh (1910-1972) was deported to the Łódź ghetto. He became the much-loved voice of the ghetto, singing in the courtyards and streets, and documenting and commenting on events.
Fania Fénelon (1922-1983) was a French pianist, composer and cabaret singer whose contested 1976 memoir, Sursis pour l'orchestre, about survival in the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz during the Holocaust was adapted as the 1980 television film, Playing for Time.
Alexander Kulisiewicz (1918-1982) was a poet, player, and songwriter of ballads in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp that often evoked his native Poland with nostalgia and patriotic zeal.
Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs widersetzten sich viele europäische Juden ihren nationalsozialistischen Unterdrückern, indem sie aktiv Widerstand leisteten. Dieser Partisanenkrieg, der von geheimen, irregulären Kräften im feindlichen Gebiet geführt wurde, war besonders in den dichten Wäldern und Sümpfen Osteuropas weit verbreitet.
The Polish musician Jozef Kropinski was born on 28 December 1913 in Berlin. On 7 May 1940, Kropinski was arrested by the Gestapo for publishing an underground newspaper, and sent to Auschwitz.
Jan Vala was a self-taught guitarist, singer and composer. He had been the owner of a popular bar in Ostravia, where he had entertained his patrons with comedy sketches and musical performances. He spent 2,060 days in German prisons and camps.
Die Lieder des französischen Widerstands wurden von Paul Arma und seiner Frau Edmée gesammelt, um die zahlreichen Lieder, die während des Zweiten Weltkriegs als Widerstandshandlungen geschrieben wurden, der Vergessenheit zu entreißen und die Anstrengungen und Gefahren, denen ihre Schöpfer ausgesetzt waren, zu würdigen.
Die weißrussisch-jüdische Komponistin Eta (Edi) Tyrmand ist eine von fast 30.000 weißrussischen Juden, die sich dem sowjetischen Partisanenwiderstand anschlossen.
Composer and musician Erich Hugo Frost (1900-1987) was imprisoned several times in prisons and concentration camps between 1934 and 1945. He composed ‘Fest steht in großer, schwerer Zeit (Stand Fast in Great and Hard Times) in the spring of 1941.
Leo Straus (1897-1944) was arrested along with his wife Myra and sent to Theresienstadt where he was involved in cabaret productions, both as a librettist and performer. In October 1944, they were deported to Auschwitz and killed.
Artur Gold (1897-1943) war ein polnischer Violinist und Komponist. Er arbeitete mit seinem Bruder Henryk Gold und mit Jerzy Petersburski zusammen, mit dem er Musik arrangierte. Er und seine Musikerkollegen wurden in den letzten Wochen von Treblinka ermordet.
The musical career of Wladyslaw Szpilman (1911-2000) was interrupted by the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Szpilman and his family were driven, along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, into the Warsaw ghetto.
Avrom Brudno was a musician and composer in the Vilna ghetto. He created many of the ghetto’s most successful songs including the melody for ‘Friling’. He died in Klooga.
David Beigelman (1887–1945) was a Polish violinist, orchestra leader, and composer of Yiddish songs. In the Łódź ghetto established a small theatre where he composed prolifically and wrote his own lyrics.
One of the remarkable reunions to take place in the immediate aftermath of the war was that of the Jewish brothers Michael (1898-1994) and Robert Hofmekler (1905-1994), in June 1945, at the Saint Ottilien Displaced Persons’ camp.
A doctor put Henry Meyer’s ID on a corpse and hid the violinist. Meyer (1923-2006) was transferred to Birkenau, where he played in the orchestra. After brief time in other camps and surviving a death march, he survived and emigrated to the US.
Jewish musicologist, composer, playwright, poet, and painter Arno Nadel (1878-1943) had an exit visa to England but he was too weak to make the journey. On 12th March 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz where he was murdered the same year.
Der in Österreich geborene britische Musikwissenschaftler und Musikkritiker Hans Keller (1919-1985), der bedeutende Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft und Musikkritik leistete, wurde von den Nazis verhaftet und musste Österreich nach dem "Anschluss" 1938 verlassen.
Der Komponist und Musikethnologe Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935) wurde durch sein hohes kulturelles Ansehen nicht geschützt und wurde zusammen mit 800 Intellektuellen von den Jungtürken ins Exil geschickt. Er war einer der wenigen, die den Völkermord an den Armeniern überlebten.
Henryk Apte was a prominent figure in the cultural and musical life of the Jewish community in Krakow during the early 20th century.
Paulina Braun (1915-1943) was a songwriter and composer in the Warsaw ghetto. Before being forced into ghetto’s cramped quarters, she had established a name for herself as a composer in the Polish theatre world of Warsaw.
Der Pianist und Liedermacher Alek Volkoviski (1931-2019) gewann 1943 im Alter von elf Jahren im Wilnaer Ghetto einen Wettbewerb für sein Wiegenlied "Shtiler, shtiler".
Yankl Trupyanski was (1909-1944) a music teacher and composer of children's songs in Warsaw and Vilna. He composed many of the songs sung by children in the Yiddish schools of the inter-war years.
Leyb Rozental (1916-1945) was a poet, publishing his first poetry book at the age of 14. In the Vilna ghetto he became one of the most successful writers of musicals and theatre revues.
Rikle Glezer (1924-) was only 16 when the Nazis invaded her home city of Vilna. She wrote several songs during her years of imprisonment in the Vilna ghetto. She escaped during deportation and joined the partisans in the forests around Vilna.
Khane Khaytin (1925-2004) was a Lithuanian-Jewish songwriter who wrote many popular songs in the Shavli ghetto.
Salomon Meijer Kannewasser (1916-1945) was the lead singer in a popular young musical duo from Amsterdam known as Johnny & Jones. Their popularity began in 1938 and they went on to record six albums under the Panachord music label.
Arnold Simeon van Wesel (1918-1945) played guitar in a popular young musical duo from Amsterdam known as Johnny & Jones. Their popularity began in 1938 and they went on to record six albums under the Panachord music label.
From the age of fourteen, Hans Neumeyer (1887-1944), a composer and teacher of musical composition, was completely blind. He died whilst interned in Theresienstadt on 19 May 1944.
Der deutsche Dirigent, Komponist und Pianist Peter Gellhorn (1912-2004) floh in den 1930er Jahren aus Deutschland und ließ sich in London nieder. Er dirigierte am Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells und Glyndebourne.
Walter Bricht (1904-1970) war ein österreichischer Komponist, dessen Jahre als professioneller Komponist mit dem Aufstieg Hitlers und dem Beginn des Austrofaschismus 1933 zusammenfielen.
'Heveti shalom aleykhem' (I bring you greetings of peace), also often titled in the plural, is one of the best-known and -loved Hebrew folk songs. In this rare recording it is sung by surviving Polish children in postwar France, in a recording taken by the Latvian-American psychologist David Boder in September 1946.
1940.
On my birthday
The Germans walked-walked into Holland
Germans invaded Hungary
I was in 2nd grade
I had a teacher
A very tall man, his head was completely plastered smooth
He said, "Black Crows-
Black Crows invaded our country many years ago"
And he pointed right at me
No more school
You must go away
And she said, "Quick, go!"
And he said, "Don't breathe"
Into the cattle wagons
And for four days and four nights
And then we went through…
The idea for the piece comes from my childhood. [Due to my parent’s divorce], I travelled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942. […] While these trips were exciting and romantic at the time, I now look back and think that, if I had been in Europe during this period, as a Jew I would have had to ride on very different trains. With this in mind, I wanted to make a piece that would accurately reflect the whole situation.
Du kleiner Kasten, den ich flüchtend trug,
Daß meine Lampen mir auch nicht zerbrächen,
Besorgt vom Haus zum Schiff, vom Schiff zum Zug,
Daß meine Feinde weiter zu mir sprächen,
An meinem Lager und zu meiner Pein,
Der letzten nachts, der ersten in der Früh,
Von ihren Siegen und von meiner Müh:
Versprich mir, nicht auf einmal stumm zu sein!
Oyfn pripetshik brent a fayerl,
Un in shtub iz heys,
Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh,
Dem alef-beys.
Zet zhe kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,
Vos ir lernt do;
Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol:
Komets-alef: o!
Lernt, kinder, mit groys kheyshek,
Azoy zog ikh aykh on;
Ver s’vet gikher fun aykh kenen ivre –
Der bakumt a fon.
Lernt, kinder, hot nit moyre,
Yeder onheyb iz shver;
Gliklekh der vos hot gelernt toyre,
Tsi darf der mentsh nokh mer?
Ir vet, kinder, elter vern,
Vet ir aleyn farshteyn,
Vifl in di oysyes lign trern,
Un vi fil geveyn
Az ir vet, kinder, dem goles shlepn,
Oysgemutshet zayn,
Zolt ir fun di oysyes koyekh shepn,
Kukt in zey arayn!
English Translation by Translation by Professor David Shneer, University of Colorado—Boulder, December 5, 2019
On the stove, a fire burns,
And in the house it is warm.
And the rabbi is teaching little children,
The alphabet.
See, children, remember, dear ones,
What you learn here;
Repeat and repeat yet again,
“Komets-alef: o!”
Learn, children, with great enthusiasm.
So I instruct you;
He among you who learns Hebrew pronunciation faster
He will receive a flag.
Learn children, don’t be afraid,
Every beginning is hard;
Lucky is the one has learned Torah,
What more does a person need?
When you grow older, children,
You will understand by yourselves,
How many tears lie in these letters,
And how much lament
When you, children, will bear the Exile,
And will be exhausted,
May you derive strength from these letters,
Look in at them!
Sur l'aile de la liberté
Par les cités et les compagnes.
Nos pas, nos coeurs sont emportés
Au loin de nos cheres compagnes,
Mais on les reverra,
L'heure H arrivera
Car nous sauvons la France
Nous les amis, nous les amis,
Car nous sauvons la France
Nous les amis
Du maquis.
Auf den Schwingen der Freiheit
Durch die Städte und über das Land
Unsere Füße, unsere Herzen werden getragen
Weit weg von unseren lieben Freunden
Doch wir sehen sie wieder
Die Stunde Null bricht an
Denn wir retten Frankreich
Wir Freunde
des Maquis.
Au jardin d’Angleterre, les bobards ont fleuri.
Tous les menteurs du monde parlent à la BBC.
Au gre de ces ondes, qu’il fait bon mentir
Im Garten von England hat die Täuschung geblüht.
Alle Lügner der Welt kommen bei der BBC zu Wort.
Da die Radiowellen es begrüßen, erzählen sie gute Lügen.
