NEXT GENERATIONS - news040807

“When a people falls into slavery as long as they hold on to their language it is as if they hold the key to their prison.”
Alphonse Daudet, “La Derniere Classe.”

The victims of the Holocaust held on to their language and used it in songs that took many forms. There were the songs of the camps, songs of the partisans, songs of the ghetto, and songs of the family. The Yiddish folk songs of World War II were created out of suffering and deprivation, degradation and terror, struggle, heroism and death.

One popular song which was supposedly started by a beggar said “Me hot zey in dr’erd, me vet zey iberlebn, me vet noch derlebn” –“To hell with them, we will survive them, we will yet survive.” Laughter became so important and was a channel for the hatred of the enemy.

When the struggle was not clear and the overwhelming demands of the Nuremberg Laws seemed beyond belief, expressions of anger and bitterness seemed to create a harmony of song for those who were being tortured, victimized and stripped of all basic human comforts.

The songs of the ghetto served to document ghetto life, serve as a diversion and also uphold tradition of Jewish life. Street songs emphasized four main themes: hunger, corruption of the government, hope for freedom and a call for revolt. In traditional Jewish homes music has always held an important role.

Whether on the Sabbath or during the holidays of Passover and Yom Kippur, music has always been an expression of joy, lamentation or hope for the Jewish people. However, during World War II, the songs were almost entirely absent of lyrics that talked about love and marriage, children, joy and humor. Instead, the songs expressed a yearning for the sight of a green blade of grass and a bit of blue sky.

The songs that were sung held one common thread: the single-minded will to live, to survive, and to preserve as long as possible every vestige of dignity, self-respect and the traditions and customs cherished for centuries. While six million Jews have been murdered, their legacy of expressing emotions through song lives on.

The ghostly tentacles of the Holocaust have reached farther and wider than perhaps realized, even casting its shadow on rock music. Gene Simmons, co-founder and bassist of Kiss is the child of a Holocaust survivor. Piano man Billy Joel, Procol Harum lyricist, Keith Reid who wrote “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” WAR harmonica player Lee Oskar and Ten Wheel Drive lead singer Genya Ravan are the children of those who survived the Holocaust or fled before the Final Solution became Nazi policy.

Sharing similar stories are Bob Laub, longtime bass player for Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. It is no wonder that Billy Joel’s songs champion the underdog. His grand –parents and father barely escaped Germany in 1939. They lost their business, their home, and lived for three years as refugees in Cuba. Ironically, Howard Joel, Billy’s father who had been drafted into the American army was among the troops that liberated Dachau.

Each of the above somehow ingested the message of Hannah Sennesh, a Hungarian partisan who was captured and executed by the Nazis in Budapest. She had written the famous poem “Eli, Eli,” which was later turned into music. Her poem states,” May these things never cease: the sand, the sea, and the sound of water, the thunder in heaven, the prayer of Man.” May Hannah’s song always be remembered.

Greta Brewer
Vice President of Education,
NEXT GENERATIONS