Yiddish Glory /
The Silenced Songs of WWII

In 1944, Moshe (Moisei) Beregovsky presented his PhD thesis in Moscow, on Jewish Instrumental Music. Most of the subject of his research had already been murdered. After the war, Beregovski led a song-collecting expedition among Holocaust survivors recording, notating, gathering what they could. The resulting collection ended up stuck in a Kyiv archive until long after the collapse of the former USSR. Beregovsky, himself, died believing that nobody would ever again see that research. He was wrong.

Research by Anna Shternshis, uncovered the collection and back in 2018, a first volume was released, "Yiddish Glory: The Hidden songs of WWII." For some songs, their authors were never recorded. Some were sung and recorded; for others, we have only the words. For several such songs, Russian singer Psoy Korolenko created new music drawing from everything from klezmer to classical melodies of the time. It wasn't enough. Now she is back with a second recording.

On the surface, the songs demonstrate how even in the depths of the slaughter, the ghettos, the camps, people sang. They set their travails to music, whether riffing on the satire "Jankoye" (about the Jewish settlement in Birobidjian) in the opening song, or repurposing Mordechai Gebirtig, songs documented the horror of their lives and the crimes committed. And, as Shternshis notes, each one expands our understanding of the Holocaust, breaking down stereotypes and deepening our understanding of the response to the human response to Genocide.

Songwriters Korolenko and Drew Jurecka use genres from the period to set those songs for which only words survive. An all-star Toronto cast brings the songs alive, even if few humans were left to sing the tale. In the deceptively gentle "Kharlovke", to which 5000 Jews were deported, and fewer than 500 survived. Still, they refused to be silent, and memorialized the crimes of Commandant Malaiesti and the policeman Stepan. "A priest was murdered in Kalisz" also documents one of the first events of the Holocaust—a priest who refused to collaborate was murdered and the Germans attempted to blame the Jews, hoping to incite a pogram. Nor did the songs only commemorate death by direct mass murder. Ida Rozhanskaya reworked Mordechai Gebirtig's song, "Kinder Yorn" to mourn the future cut short for her son who perished during the Battle for Stalingrad. (Gebirtig, himself, was killed in the Krakow Ghetto in 1942). In some cases, as in "Transnistria viglid" (Transnistrian Lullaby) the story is of refugees and their miserable survival. "[They drove us out of our home / into a strange land ... Typhus, solitude, hunger, cold / accomplished more / than weapons can / in a great battle."

Nor all all songs documentation. Toronto's cantor Simon Spiro sings "Af yidishn beysoylem" (at the Jewish cemetery) lamenting the lack of divine intervention and questioning one's faith in the divine. In this rendition, he also incorporates krechts and fragments of nusakh. "The trees rustle, the sky blazes and burns; Jews lie around, [killed] by murderous hands. Oh woe, oh how can it be, dear God, why are you silent?" A version of this song also made it into Eleanor Mlotek's "Songs of generations: New pearls of Yiddish song)," published by Workers Circle in 1997. Even when the songs document the horror, as the destruction of Kalisz, set to a klezmerish tune: "A seyfer-toyre un a hakn-kreyts" (Torah and Swastika), a verse is set aside from the degradation and murder of the town's Jews to recall "And they desecrated the Torah / and defiled it hideously / and with mockery they / burned it on a bonfire.…"

Documentation. Horror. Survival.

"This year well make Hitler our atonement [kaporeh],
an end, a corner turned on all our suffering and our sorrows!
On Yom Kippur
he'll be our sacrificial rooster,
and on Simkhes-Toyre
he'll burn like a candle at the pole.
So lift him, Jews, over your heads,
but with one condition:
you must all shout loudly as you do it:
"This is my atonement!
This is my substitute!
This one—may the fascist go to his death!"
And may we live to long years—
happy and sweet!

Thus ends this recording, with "A lid tsu yomkiper" (Yom Kippur without fascists), set to appropriate liturgical music. May we learn from these songs, speedily, in our days. Beregovsky and his colleague Ruvim Lerner edited a book of songs based on their post-Holocaust field work, "Yiddish Folk Creativity." It was scheduled for publication in 1949. By then, official Soviet attitudes had changed. Beregovsky was arrested in 1950 for anti-Soviet activities and propaganda. The book was never published. Now, Shternshis and company have brought these words and songs to life. Silenced, at least these few songs, no more.

Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 23-June 2026 .

Songlist

1. In Obodivker Lager—In Obodivke Camp (Lyrics: Boris Zitserman; recorded from Sonya Reyber, Zunye Shtindler (17), Genye Soyfer (8 July 1945), former prisoners of Bershad Ghetto; Music: Folk, based on the tune of Yiddish folk song “Hey, Jankoe”; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:03
2. Fun a troyerikn lager—The Sad camp (Lyrics: Itsik Semidubovski, a veteran of the Red Army wounded during World War II & former prisoner of Bershad ghetto; Music: Based on the folk song “Bublichki,” author unknown; Arr: Alice Zawadzki; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:12
3. Bin ikh mir a tifus loyz—I am a typhus louse (Lyrics: Reli Blay; Music: David Beigelman 1887–1945, died in Auschwitz; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Eli Jany) 2:26
4. A priest was murdered in Kalisz (Lyrics: Leyb Diament; Music: Psoy Korolenko; Arr: Beth Silver; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:24
5. Karlovke (Lyrics: Fira Mitsel (born in 1926); Music: Folk, with elements of “Mayn Shtetele Belz” (composer Alexander Olshanetsky (1892–1946); Arr: Alice Zawadzki; Eng: Eli Jany) 4:46
6. Af Yidishn beysoylem—At the Jewish cemetery (Lyrics: Unknown Music: Unknown; Recorded from various survivors of the Bershad Ghetto, including Genya Soifer, Shmuel Gruber, & others, 1945; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Translit: Eli Jany) 5:00<
7. Kinder yorn—Childhood years (Lyrics: Ida Rozhanskaya, based on Mordechai Gebirtig’s original lyrics; Music: Mordechai Gebirtig; Arr: Alice Zawadzki) 5:11
8. Transnistria viglid—Transnistrian lullaby (Lyrics: Reli Blay, based on David Nomberg’s lullaby, “Dark Clouds Race and Rush”; Music: Unknown; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Hindy Abelson; Translit: Eli Jany) 5:28
9. A meydele fun Kyiv—A girl From Kyiv (Lyrics: Unknown; Music: Folk; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:21
10. A lid fun Pechera lager—Song of Pechera camp (Lyrics: Folk, recorded from several survivors of Pechera camp, Aug 1945; Music: Folk; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Eli Jany) 4:36
11. A seyfer-toyre un a hakn-kreyts—Torah and swastika (Lyrics: Leyb Diament (1908–after 1998); Music: Psoy Korolenko; Arr: Beth Silver; Eng: Eli Jany) 4:24
12. Di mame—Dear mama (Lyrics: Unknown, recorded from Silva Fleshler, a fifth grade student at Chernivtsi Jewish school, 1945—she heard it in the Bershad ghetto in 1942; Music: Folk, similar to “Harshl,” a Yiddish folk song about the Jewish underworld in Warsaw; Arr: Alice Zawadzki Eng: Eli Jany) 5:50
13. A massacre in Zhabokrych (Lyrics: Shikl (Semion) Gershberg (1909–after 1998); Music: Psoy Korolenko; Arr: Drew Jurecka; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:23
14. Viglid—Lullaby (Lyrics: Unknown Recorded from Lantse Vinakur, survivor of Mohilev-Podilsky ghetto, 1943 Music: Unknown; Arr: Drew Jurecka & Steve Briggs; Eng: Eli Jany) 3:00
15. A lid tsu yomkiper—Yom Kippur without Fascists (Lyrics: Unknown; Music: Psoy Korolenko & Drew Jurecka, from Jewish liturgical music; Arr: Drew Jurecka) 2:30

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