"Himlen, o Himlen" - for 75th anniv. of Auschwitz Liberation Day

[klezmer]

In commemoration of Auschwitz Liberation Day, here is a song we have just recorded with Sasha Lurje & Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble for the Fortunoff Video Archive's Songs from Testimonies, Vol.2 (!). "Azoy vi mir zaynen nokh Oyshvits gekimen / Himlen, o Himlen" (see translation & full text below).



Originally performed by Moshe F (tape hvt.1956), born in Uniejów, Poland, in 1913.
When Moshe arrived in Auschwitz, he met there a man by name Mayer-Ber Gutman who “could write.” He wrote two poems, “Azoy vi ikh bin nokh Oyshvits gekimen” (“When I came to Auschwitz…”) and “Himlen, o, himlen, vi iz mayn glik?” (“Heavens, oh heavens, where is my luck?”). Both were set to the melodies of popular Yiddish songs of the period, particularly Vu iz dos gesele, vu iz di shtib (Where Is The Little Street, Where Is That Little House…). As in a lot of amateur poetry, there are some colloquialisms (or, possibly, dialectisms, - e.g. “shneyern” - masses of snow), and some words in the poem are grammatically incorrect, but obviously used in that form for the rhyming purposes.



Azoy vi mir zaynen nokh Oyshvits gekimen,
Froyen in kinder hot men tsigenimen
Iz dort gevorn a groyser timl
”In a halbe shu veln mir zayn in himl.”
In di nakht oyf di nares
Leygn mir avek di beyndelakh di dare.
Shlofn mit ofenung oyfn hertsn.
Oyf der fray veln mir zayn in kertsn.
O himlen, o himlen, a vu iz mayn glik?
Levone in shneyern bahaltn mit ayer blik.
Vu zenen undzere kinder? In velkhn land?
In Oyshvits, in Treblinke, tseshpolt in tsushand.

When we arrived in Auschwitz,
They took away the women and the children.
A great tumult happened there:
“In half an hour we will be in heaven.”
At night, on the plank-beds,
We put away our skinny bones.
We sleep with an orifice in heart.
We will be set free shortly.
Heavens, oh heavens, so where is my luck?
The moon and the snow are hidden by your look.
Where are our children? In what country are they?
In Auschwitz, in Treblinka, split and disgraced.

(English translation by Zisl Slepovitch)