Mordechai Gebirtig
Encyclopedia
Mordechai Gebirtig, born Mordecai Bertig ' onMouseout='HidePop("77184")' href="/topics/Kraków">Kraków
, Austria Hungary; d. 4 June 1942, Kraków Ghetto
, Poland) was an influential Yiddish poet and songwriter.
), written in 1938 in response to the 1936 pogrom of Jews
in the shtetl
(small town) of Przytyk
. Gebirtig had hoped its message, “Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!” would be a call to action. Cracow's underground Jewish resistance adopted S'brent as its anthem. Undzer shtetl brennt
was sung in the ghetto
s of Nazi
-occupied Europe. Since then the song, in the original Yiddish and in its Hebrew
translation titled "Ha-Ayyarah Bo'eret" (העיירה בוערת, "Our Little Town is Burning!" - hence the occasional reference to a Yiddish title, "Undzer Shtetl Brent!"), continues to be widely performed in the context of Holocaust commemoration.
and lived in its Jewish working-class quarter all his life, one which was ended by a Nazi bullet in the Kraków Ghetto
on the infamous "Bloody Thursday" of June 4, 1942. He is the preeminent "folk" artist in Yiddish literature
and song. Gebirtig served for five years in the Austro-Hungarian army. He was self-taught in music, played the shepherd's pipe well, and tapped out tunes on the piano with one finger. He earned his livelihood as a furniture worker; music and theater were avocations.
, a political party in Galicia which merged into the Jewish Labour Bund
after World War I
. The Bund was a Yiddishist proletarian socialist party, which called for Jewish cultural autonomy in a democratic
and socialist Poland
.
's (wedding jester's) improvisatory art.
, that he published his first collection of songs, significantly entitled Folkstimlekh ('of the folk'). His songs spread quickly even before they were published, and many people regarded them as folksongs whose author or authors were anonymous. Adopted by leading Yiddish players such as Molly Picon
, Gebirtig's songs became staples of numerous regular as well as improvised theatrical productions wherever Yiddish theatre
was performed. It is not an exaggeration to say that Gebirtig's songs were sung and lovingly sung the world over.
," which was written in 1938 following the pogrom in Pszytyk
and which was later adopted by the Jewish youth of Krakow and others as a battle song against the Nazis.
In his song "S'tut vey" ('It Hurts'), Gebirtig is shattered by the absence of solidarity of all Polish citizens against the Nazi invaders. Dated Krakow February 1940, it is a song directed against those Poles who laughed when German soldiers humiliated and tortured old Jews in the streets of Krakow.
Gebirtig's song "It Hurts" expresses what most Jews have always felt and what courageous Poles like Jan Blonski
have clearly said on this painful subject: the Poles could not have saved the Jews from their fate and are not responsible for that fate, but they could certainly have shown more compassion to the Jews in their agony.
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Austria Hungary; d. 4 June 1942, Kraków Ghetto
Kraków Ghetto
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...
, Poland) was an influential Yiddish poet and songwriter.
S'brent
One of Gebirtig's best-known songs is "S'brent" (It is BurningIt is Burning
"It is Burning", is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1938 by Mordechai Gebirtig...
), written in 1938 in response to the 1936 pogrom of Jews
Przytyk pogrom
The Przytyk Pogrom occurred against the Jewish community in Przytyk, Radom County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland on March 9, 1936. It was the most notorious incident of antisemitic violence in Poland in the interwar period, and attracted worldwide attention...
in the shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
(small town) of Przytyk
Przytyk
Przytyk is a village in Radom County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland, founded in the year 1333. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Przytyk. It lies approximately west of Radom and south of Warsaw. In 2006 the village had a population of 990.In 1895, the village was...
. Gebirtig had hoped its message, “Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!” would be a call to action. Cracow's underground Jewish resistance adopted S'brent as its anthem. Undzer shtetl brennt
It is Burning
"It is Burning", is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1938 by Mordechai Gebirtig...
was sung in the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
s of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
-occupied Europe. Since then the song, in the original Yiddish and in its Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
translation titled "Ha-Ayyarah Bo'eret" (העיירה בוערת, "Our Little Town is Burning!" - hence the occasional reference to a Yiddish title, "Undzer Shtetl Brent!"), continues to be widely performed in the context of Holocaust commemoration.
Arbetloze marsh
One of Gebirtig's political songs that is also still popular today is the Arbetloze marsh, or Song of the Unemployed:
Eynz, tsvey, dray, fir, arbetloze zenen mir.
Nisht gehert khadoshim lang
in fabrik den hamer klang,
z lign keylim kalt fargezn,
z nemt der shaver zey shoyn frezn.
Geyn mir arum in gaz,
vi di gvirim puzt un paz.
One, two, three, four, we are unemployed.
We have not heard all month long,
in the factory the hammer sound.
Tools are cold, forgotten,
the rust will eat them.
Let's go around on the streets,
and spend our time without work like the idle rich.
Biography
Mordecai Gebirtig (1877–1942) was born in KrakowKraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and lived in its Jewish working-class quarter all his life, one which was ended by a Nazi bullet in the Kraków Ghetto
Kraków Ghetto
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...
on the infamous "Bloody Thursday" of June 4, 1942. He is the preeminent "folk" artist in Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.It is generally described...
and song. Gebirtig served for five years in the Austro-Hungarian army. He was self-taught in music, played the shepherd's pipe well, and tapped out tunes on the piano with one finger. He earned his livelihood as a furniture worker; music and theater were avocations.
Gebirtig’s political opinions
Gebirtig belonged to the Jewish Social Democratic PartyJewish Social Democratic Party
The Jewish Social Democratic Party was a political party in Galicia and later also Bukovina, established in a split from the Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia in 1905...
, a political party in Galicia which merged into the Jewish Labour Bund
General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland
The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland was a Jewish socialist party in Poland which promoted the political, cultural and social autonomy of Jewish workers, sought to combat antisemitism and was generally opposed to Zionism.-Creation of the Polish Bund:...
after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Bund was a Yiddishist proletarian socialist party, which called for Jewish cultural autonomy in a democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and socialist Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Music
From 1906 he was a member of the Jewish Amateur Troupe in Krakow. He also wrote songs and theater reviews for Der sotsial-demokrat, the Yiddish organ of the Jewish Social-Democratic Party. It was in such an environment that Gebirtig developed, encouraged by such professional writers and Yiddishist culural activists as Avrom Reyzn, who for a time lived and published a journal in Krakow. His talent was his own, but he took the language, themes, types, tone and timbre of his art from his surroundings, in some measure continuing the musical tradition of the popular Galician cabaret entertainers known as the Broder Singers, who in turn were beholden to the yet older and still vital tradition of the badchenBadchen
A badchen or badkhn is a Jewish comedian with scholarly overtones who entertained guests at weddings among the Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe...
's (wedding jester's) improvisatory art.
The style of folk songs
It was only in 1920, under the second Polish RepublicSecond Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
, that he published his first collection of songs, significantly entitled Folkstimlekh ('of the folk'). His songs spread quickly even before they were published, and many people regarded them as folksongs whose author or authors were anonymous. Adopted by leading Yiddish players such as Molly Picon
Molly Picon
Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
, Gebirtig's songs became staples of numerous regular as well as improvised theatrical productions wherever Yiddish theatre
Yiddish theatre
Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and...
was performed. It is not an exaggeration to say that Gebirtig's songs were sung and lovingly sung the world over.
Recognition and work
Gebirtig is most famous for his song "Undzer shtetl brentIt is Burning
"It is Burning", is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1938 by Mordechai Gebirtig...
," which was written in 1938 following the pogrom in Pszytyk
Przytyk pogrom
The Przytyk Pogrom occurred against the Jewish community in Przytyk, Radom County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland on March 9, 1936. It was the most notorious incident of antisemitic violence in Poland in the interwar period, and attracted worldwide attention...
and which was later adopted by the Jewish youth of Krakow and others as a battle song against the Nazis.
In his song "S'tut vey" ('It Hurts'), Gebirtig is shattered by the absence of solidarity of all Polish citizens against the Nazi invaders. Dated Krakow February 1940, it is a song directed against those Poles who laughed when German soldiers humiliated and tortured old Jews in the streets of Krakow.
Gebirtig's song "It Hurts" expresses what most Jews have always felt and what courageous Poles like Jan Blonski
Jan Blonski
Jan Błoński was a Polish historian literary critic, publicist and translator.Professor of the Jagiellonian University, Błoński was habilitated for his work about Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński and the beginnings of the Polish Baroque. He was a leading representative of the Kraków school of literary...
have clearly said on this painful subject: the Poles could not have saved the Jews from their fate and are not responsible for that fate, but they could certainly have shown more compassion to the Jews in their agony.
Publications and recordings
- Gehat hob ich a hejm. Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – ISBN 3-9803098-1-9 (gramophone record and booklet)
- Majn jowl. Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – ISBN 3-9803098-3-5
- Der singer fun nojt. Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – ISBN 3-9803098-2-7
- Farewell Cracow - Blayb gezunt mir, Kroke. Interpretiert von Bente Kahan. Studio Hard, Warschau (CD)
- 1946: S'brent. Krakau 1946
- 1949: Meine lider. Farl. Dawke, Paris 1949
- 1992: Jiddische Lieder., Wuppertal 1992. – ISBN 3-9803098-0-0
- 1997: Mai faifele: unbakante lider. Lerner, Tel Aviv 1997
Further reading
- Christina Pareigis: „trogt zikh a gezang ...“: jiddische Liebeslyrik aus den Jahren 1939-1945. Dölling & Galitz, München 2003. – ISBN 3-935549-59-8
- Gertrude Schneider (Hrsg.): Mordechaj Gebirtig: his poetic and musical legacy. Praeger, Westport/Connecticut 2000. – ISBN 0-275-96657-7