Mordecai Gebirtig - "Polin" with Barbara Suie and Jozef Kapustka

"Mordecai Gebirtig, whose real surname was Bertig, was born in 1877 in the Jewish quarter of Kraków to a family of impoverished petty merchants. Gebirtig received a traditional kheyder education until the age of ten, at which time he began a carpenter’s apprenticeship. He would go on to practice carpentry until the end of his life.
From early on, Gebirtig demonstrated an interest in music, poetry, and theater. In 1905 he began publishing articles and songs in several periodicals, among them Der sotsyal demokrat, the Yiddish organ of the Social Democratic Party in Galicia, of which he was a member. Gebirtig served five years in the Austro-Hungarian army (as Kraków and all of Galicia were at that time under Austrian rule), and began collecting folksongs during this period. The state of destitution that Gebirtig experienced during his childhood prevented him from receiving any kind of formal musical training. Thus, he was fortunate to meet and befriend the prominent musician, Jan Hoffman, who was one of the first to recognize his talent and potential. Hoffman transcribed Gebirtig’s melodies into musical notes. It is thanks to him that much of Gebirtig’s composed works are now available to us. Gebirtig issued his first collection of folksongs called, Folkstimlekh (“Of the Folk”) in 1920 in Kraków. This included children’s songs such as Hershele, Viglid (“Lullaby”), and the popular, Unter geyt di velt (“The World is Going Under”).
In the 1920s and 1930s Gebirtig’s fame began to grow. It was during this period that he wrote Kinder-yorn (“Childhood Years”) and Hulyet, hulyet kinderlekh (“Rejoice, Rejoice Children”), which were performed and popularized all over the world. In particular, Gebirtig’s songs and melodies were performed in the kleynkunst theaters of Warsaw, Łódz, and Vilna: Azazel, Ararat, Sambatyon, and Maidyim, and during the `Gebirtig Evenings’ that were organized around the country.Gebirtig’s songs include lullabies, children’s songs, songs of one’s home, youth, and childhood, underworld themes, and songs about destruction of Jewish life including Undzer shtetl brent (“Our Town is On Fire”) and S’tut vey (“It Hurts”).
In April 1942 Gebirtig and his family were transported to the Kraków ghetto. On June 4, 1942, the day known in the history of the ghetto as “Bloody Thursday”, Jews were rounded up for deportation to the Belzec extermination camp. Gebirtig was shot and killed during this roundup.
It is believed that Gebirtig wrote many songs during the Nazi occupation period and in the ghetto proper. Only four of the songs written by Gebirtig in the ghetto were ever recovered, the final one being the sarcastically titled, S’iz gut (“It’s Good”), which was dated May, 1942. Gebirtig’s friends, the composers Borukh Sperber and Jan Hoffman, helped set his poetry to music. In 1936 Gebirtig’s second book of folksongs, Mayne lider (“My Songs”) was published and edited by the folksinger Menakhem Kipnis. This edition was later reprinted with additions in 1942 and 1948. New editions and frequent recordings of his songs, as well as a number of biographical works about him in the post-war years, have signaled a revival of interest in Gebirtig’s body of work."
This biographical note comes from the page Guide to the papers of Mordecai Gebirtig ( processed by Rivka Schiller, © 2007 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Publisher:Center for Jewish History, All rights reserved.), full text here: http://findingaids.cjh.org/index2.php?fnm=MorGebirtig&pnm=YIVO
From early on, Gebirtig demonstrated an interest in music, poetry, and theater. In 1905 he began publishing articles and songs in several periodicals, among them Der sotsyal demokrat, the Yiddish organ of the Social Democratic Party in Galicia, of which he was a member. Gebirtig served five years in the Austro-Hungarian army (as Kraków and all of Galicia were at that time under Austrian rule), and began collecting folksongs during this period. The state of destitution that Gebirtig experienced during his childhood prevented him from receiving any kind of formal musical training. Thus, he was fortunate to meet and befriend the prominent musician, Jan Hoffman, who was one of the first to recognize his talent and potential. Hoffman transcribed Gebirtig’s melodies into musical notes. It is thanks to him that much of Gebirtig’s composed works are now available to us. Gebirtig issued his first collection of folksongs called, Folkstimlekh (“Of the Folk”) in 1920 in Kraków. This included children’s songs such as Hershele, Viglid (“Lullaby”), and the popular, Unter geyt di velt (“The World is Going Under”).
In the 1920s and 1930s Gebirtig’s fame began to grow. It was during this period that he wrote Kinder-yorn (“Childhood Years”) and Hulyet, hulyet kinderlekh (“Rejoice, Rejoice Children”), which were performed and popularized all over the world. In particular, Gebirtig’s songs and melodies were performed in the kleynkunst theaters of Warsaw, Łódz, and Vilna: Azazel, Ararat, Sambatyon, and Maidyim, and during the `Gebirtig Evenings’ that were organized around the country.Gebirtig’s songs include lullabies, children’s songs, songs of one’s home, youth, and childhood, underworld themes, and songs about destruction of Jewish life including Undzer shtetl brent (“Our Town is On Fire”) and S’tut vey (“It Hurts”).
In April 1942 Gebirtig and his family were transported to the Kraków ghetto. On June 4, 1942, the day known in the history of the ghetto as “Bloody Thursday”, Jews were rounded up for deportation to the Belzec extermination camp. Gebirtig was shot and killed during this roundup.
It is believed that Gebirtig wrote many songs during the Nazi occupation period and in the ghetto proper. Only four of the songs written by Gebirtig in the ghetto were ever recovered, the final one being the sarcastically titled, S’iz gut (“It’s Good”), which was dated May, 1942. Gebirtig’s friends, the composers Borukh Sperber and Jan Hoffman, helped set his poetry to music. In 1936 Gebirtig’s second book of folksongs, Mayne lider (“My Songs”) was published and edited by the folksinger Menakhem Kipnis. This edition was later reprinted with additions in 1942 and 1948. New editions and frequent recordings of his songs, as well as a number of biographical works about him in the post-war years, have signaled a revival of interest in Gebirtig’s body of work."
This biographical note comes from the page Guide to the papers of Mordecai Gebirtig ( processed by Rivka Schiller, © 2007 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Publisher:Center for Jewish History, All rights reserved.), full text here: http://findingaids.cjh.org/index2.php?fnm=MorGebirtig&pnm=YIVO
In June 1942 Mordechai Gebirtig was among the group of Jews being deported from the German-built Krakow ghetto to almost certain death at the Belzhetz concentration camp. While being marched to the railway station, he was shot by a German guard—for reasons that are not entirely clear, despite an eyewitness account to the effect that he had attracted attention by singing and dancing. Read more about Mordechai Gebirtig music and legacy: http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/1052/Gebirtig,+Mordechai+%28Mordkhe%29
read also about music of the Shoah: http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/music/
read also about music of the Shoah: http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/music/
Further read:
*on Jewish life in Poland (history and present day): http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/
*Jewish Poland today: http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1495_jewish_poland_today.htm
*portal społeczności żydowskiej w Polsce: http://www.jewish.org.pl/
*on Jewish life in Poland (history and present day): http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/
*Jewish Poland today: http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1495_jewish_poland_today.htm
*portal społeczności żydowskiej w Polsce: http://www.jewish.org.pl/
Barbara Suie about her project " Po-lin" : "Po-lin" – dwell here. These are the words exhausted Jews flying medieval Western European pogroms eastward found carved into a tree trunk in a far away, wondrous place . Henri Minczeles quotes this beautiful legend in his “History of Polish Jews” ( sadly never translated from the French original), mentioning yet another version of the same story: the actual words might have been “Po-lan-yah” or “ The Eternal is here”. They were meant to indicate that this was the place, these were the lands where the persecuted tribe would find the refuge. Po-lin, Po-lan-yah, Poland, refuge, asylum, a place to stay and recover.
There is something incredibly moving in a sort of tragic irony attached , since the future course of events , as we know , has turned the very same place not into a home but into a graveyard, bringing thus the history of Jews on Polish soil to its tragic and cruel end ; the very event that has defined and shaped the contemporary perception of centuries of Jewish settlement in Poland depriving it of its essence and content forever.
A history of coexistence of Jews and Poles is a rich and wonderful, exciting, extended family saga, intermingling different characters and situations, intrigue and passion, love and hate; a saga made of major historical facts and prime anecdotes , hazard and folly, everyday trivial prose and fantastic creative utopia, all brushed generously on a supportive canvas and ignorant of the fatal logic attached.
One of the most important issues in this context appears to be the question of the individual, personal identity, the subject of a permanent, inquisitive soul searching that goes well beyond time and space . Jews have been key contributors to shaping Poland and Polish spirit throughout the ages ; and likewise, the Yiddish culture, thought and expression evolved, dwelled and was nourished by the Polish language, art and landscape. 18th century Poland was a cradle of the chassidic spiritual movement and later, in the 19th , the formerly Polish city of Vilnius (now Lithuania) was the place where the Bund, a major political force of the time, was created . Like a fragile, miraculous strike of sunlight before the disaster, the beginning of the 20th century followed by the interwar period stands up simultaneously as the Golden age of the Yiddish culture and that of the Polish art, science and litterature.
This glorious epoch also bears witness, unsurprisingly, to Mordechai Gebirtig's explosion of talent, countless songs being set to his poetry by either himself or his collaborators, forging the unique canon of repertoire that captures the very spirit of Yiddish language, humor and melancholy. The aim of the "Po-lin" project here presented is not only to save this priceless legacy from the oblivion, but first, foremost and above all to infuse a new spark, a new breath reminiscent of bygone joy and cast in the present day sorrow into the whole universe that these songs contain, to bring to life silent, static archives miraculously preserved, and by doing so, the spirit of Poland that is no more. What is particuliar to Art is that Art takes over death, takes over void. It is a peaceful and serene asylum, one of the very few spaces available, somewhere in the vicinity of that of Religion and Philosophy, where the human civilisation still finds a true shelter and a refuge .
© Barbara Suie 2014. All rights reserved
more here: http://barbarasuie.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/po-lin-mordechai-gebirtig-yiddish-songs-by-barbara-suie-jozef-kapustka/
There is something incredibly moving in a sort of tragic irony attached , since the future course of events , as we know , has turned the very same place not into a home but into a graveyard, bringing thus the history of Jews on Polish soil to its tragic and cruel end ; the very event that has defined and shaped the contemporary perception of centuries of Jewish settlement in Poland depriving it of its essence and content forever.
A history of coexistence of Jews and Poles is a rich and wonderful, exciting, extended family saga, intermingling different characters and situations, intrigue and passion, love and hate; a saga made of major historical facts and prime anecdotes , hazard and folly, everyday trivial prose and fantastic creative utopia, all brushed generously on a supportive canvas and ignorant of the fatal logic attached.
One of the most important issues in this context appears to be the question of the individual, personal identity, the subject of a permanent, inquisitive soul searching that goes well beyond time and space . Jews have been key contributors to shaping Poland and Polish spirit throughout the ages ; and likewise, the Yiddish culture, thought and expression evolved, dwelled and was nourished by the Polish language, art and landscape. 18th century Poland was a cradle of the chassidic spiritual movement and later, in the 19th , the formerly Polish city of Vilnius (now Lithuania) was the place where the Bund, a major political force of the time, was created . Like a fragile, miraculous strike of sunlight before the disaster, the beginning of the 20th century followed by the interwar period stands up simultaneously as the Golden age of the Yiddish culture and that of the Polish art, science and litterature.
This glorious epoch also bears witness, unsurprisingly, to Mordechai Gebirtig's explosion of talent, countless songs being set to his poetry by either himself or his collaborators, forging the unique canon of repertoire that captures the very spirit of Yiddish language, humor and melancholy. The aim of the "Po-lin" project here presented is not only to save this priceless legacy from the oblivion, but first, foremost and above all to infuse a new spark, a new breath reminiscent of bygone joy and cast in the present day sorrow into the whole universe that these songs contain, to bring to life silent, static archives miraculously preserved, and by doing so, the spirit of Poland that is no more. What is particuliar to Art is that Art takes over death, takes over void. It is a peaceful and serene asylum, one of the very few spaces available, somewhere in the vicinity of that of Religion and Philosophy, where the human civilisation still finds a true shelter and a refuge .
© Barbara Suie 2014. All rights reserved
more here: http://barbarasuie.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/po-lin-mordechai-gebirtig-yiddish-songs-by-barbara-suie-jozef-kapustka/