Mordechai Gebirtig ( yi, מרדכי געבירטיג), born Mordecai Bertig (4 May 1877 – 4 June 1942), was an influential Polish poet and songwriter of the interwar period. He was shot by Germans in the

Kraków Ghetto The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and ...

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

, during

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. A number of his Yiddish songs are sung to this day, including Es brent, ''Reyzele'', ''Moyshele Mayn Fraynd'', and ''Kinder Yorn''.

Life

Mordechai Gebirtig was born in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

under the

Austrian Partition The Austrian Partition ( pl, zabór austriacki) comprise the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Habsburg monarchy during the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. The three partition (politics), p ...

, and lived in its

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish working-class quarter all his life. He served for five years in the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

army. Gebirtig became a renowned folk artist in

Yiddish literature Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish language, Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus ...

and song while in Kraków. He was self-taught in music, played the shepherd's pipe, and tapped out tunes on the piano with one finger. He earned his livelihood as a furniture worker; while music and theatre were his avocations. His life ended in the Nazi shooting action carried out in the

on the infamous "Bloody Thursday" of June 4, 1942. Gebirtig belonged to the

Jewish Social Democratic Party The Jewish Social Democratic Party in Galicia ( yi, יידישער סאציאל-דעמאקראטישער פארטיי אין גאליציען, ''yidisher sotsial-demokratisher partey in galizien'', pl, Żydowska Partia Socjal-Demokratyczna, abbre ...

, a political party in Galicia which merged into the

Jewish Labour Bund The General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia ( yi, ‏אַלגעמײנער ייִדישער אַרבעטער־בונד אין ליטע, פּױלן און רוסלאַנד , translit=Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter-bund in Lite, Poy ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The Bund was a Yiddishist proletarian socialist party, which called for Jewish

cultural autonomy Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements oft ...

in a democratic Second Republic.

Music

From 1906 he was a member of the Jewish Amateur Troupe in Kraków. He also wrote songs and theater reviews for , 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 cultural activists as

Avrom Reyzen Avrom Reyzen (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם רייזען; April 8, 1876 – April 2, 1953), known as Abraham Reisen, was a Yiddish writer, poet and editor, and the elder brother of the Yiddishist Zalman Reisen. Reyzen was born in Koidanov (Minsk, ea ...

, who for a time lived and published a journal in Krakow. Gebirtig's talent was his own, but he took the language, themes, types, tone, and timbre of his pieces from his surroundings, in some measure continuing the musical tradition of the popular Galician cabaret entertainers known as the

Broder singers Broder or Bröder is a surname. Notable people with the surname Broder / Bröder include: *Andrei Broder (born 1953), Research Fellow and Vice President of Emerging Search Technology for Yahoo! *Andrew Broder (1845–1918), Ontario farmer and mer ...

, who in turn were beholden to the yet older and still vital tradition of the

badchen A ''badchen'' or ''badkhn'' ( yi, בּדחן) is a type of Ashkenazic Jewish wedding entertainer, poet, sacred clown, and master of ceremonies originating in Eastern Europe, with a history dating back to at least the seventeenth century. The ''b ...

's (wedding

jester A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during the medieval and Renaissance eras. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs and ...

's) improvisatory art.

Style of folk songs

He published his first collection of songs in 1920, in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. It was titled ''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 ( yi, מאָלי פּיקאָן; born Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898 – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller. She began her career in Yidd ...

, Gebirtig's songs became staples of numerous regular as well as improvised theatrical productions wherever

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 ...

was performed. It is not an exaggeration to say that Gebirtig's songs were lovingly sung the world over.

S'brent

One of Gebirtig's best-known songs is ''"

S'brent Es brent ( "It's burning", also known as ''undzer shtetl brent'' "our town is burning", in Hebrew translation ) is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1936 by Mordechai Gebirtig. Although the poem is generally said to have been written in response t ...

"'' (

It is Burning Es brent ( "It's burning", also known as ''undzer shtetl brent'' "our town is burning", in Hebrew translation ) is a Yiddish poem–song written in 1936 by Mordechai Gebirtig. Although the poem is generally said to have been written in response t ...

), written in 1938 in response to the 1936

Przytyk pogrom The Przytyk pogrom or Przytyk riots occurred between the Polish and Jewish communities in Przytyk, Radom County, Kielce Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic, on March 9, 1936. Previously, on January 28, authorities had suspended the weekly market ...

in the

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

(small town) of

Przytyk Przytyk ( yi, פשיטיק) is a village in Radom County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland, founded in the year 1333. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Przytyk. It lies in historic Lesser Poland, app ...

. Gebirtig had hoped its message, “Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!” would be a call to action. Kraków (Cracow) underground Jewish resistance adopted S'brent as its anthem in World War II. '' "Undzer shtetl brennt"'' was sung in the

Nazi ghettos Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small sections of towns and cities furtheri ...

German-occupied Europe German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

. Since then the song, in the original Yiddish and in its

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

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 The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

commemoration.

Arbetsloze marsh

One of Gebirtig's political songs that is also still popular today is the Arbetloze marsh or Song of the Unemployed:

Publications and recordings

* . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – (gramophone record and booklet) * . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – * . Edition Künstlertreff, Wuppertal – * . Studio Hard, Warschau (CD) * 1946: . Krakau 1946 * 1949: . Farl. Dawke, Paris 1949 * 1992: . Wuppertal 1992. – * 1997: . Lerner, Tel Aviv 1997 * 2005: .' Anthony Coleman, piano. Tzadik, 2005

References

External links

Officia
Mordechai Gebirtig Memorial website

Bibliography

* http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/arts/musVicti.htm
Papers of Mordecai Gebirtig
at the

YIVO YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

, New York. * http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/ghettos/krakow/gebirtigmordechai/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20110519162239/http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1901

* http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/vanoort/fayfele/vanoort.fayfele.html ( Mariejan van Oort & Jacques Verheijen produced 'Mayn Fayfele', a musical portrait of Gebirtig, 2003.) * http://ulrich-greve.eu/free Free scores and song lyrics in Yiddish {{DEFAULTSORT:Gebirtig, Mordecai Bundists 1877 births 1942 deaths Writers from Kraków Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Yiddish-language poets Jewish poets People who died in the Kraków Ghetto Polish poets Deaths by firearm in Poland Polish civilians killed in World War II Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Broder singers