A yidish kind

‘A Yidish Kind’ (A Jewish Child) was one of the most popular songs written by the Lithuanian-Jewish songwriter Khane Khaytin in the Shavli (Siauliai) ghetto. The song commemorates the painful choice of a mother to hide her only child with non-Jews outside of the ghetto, so that he might survive the war.  Recognising that concealing his identity represents his only chance to remain alive, she warns her young son that 'Yiddish words can’t come from you: you are no longer a Jew.'

An archive version of this song can be listened to from the Yad Vashem Archive at Heartstrings.

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