Treblinka

Named for the infamous death camp, the song 'Treblinka' was written when inmates of the Warsaw ghetto had begun to discover what was happening to those being deported during the summer of 1942.  The lyrics describe in painful detail how Jews were driven from their homes and onto trains to Treblinka, where they imagined that one day 'the biggest grave in the world' would be found.

The bitterly ironic text of the ‘Treblinka song’ called upon prisoners to

keep their 'gaze forwards,
always brave and happy looking into the world …
Today we only have Treblinka, that is our fate …
we want to work, more, more
until that little happiness greets us finally.  Hurray!'

A surviving SS guard from Treblinka remembered the song with pleasure as 'an original. There isn’t a Jew today who can sing it'.