The Song Remains – דאָס ליד איז געבליבן

The Song Remains

People of the Warsaw Ghetto merged with a map of the Nazi occupation of Poland

דאָס ליד איז געבליבן

Welcome to our collection of Yiddish poems with English translations from Nazi German occupied Poland. We’ll be publishing one new poem per week into 2027, so be sure to subscribe to get free weekly updates.

  • Mordkhe (Mordechai) Gebirtig

    Jews, let us be cheerful!
    It won’t be long, I hope —
    The war will soon be over,
    And soon their end will come.
    Be cheerful and don’t worry!
    Don’t carry on in grief;
    Have patience and have confidence —
    Take hard times in your stride.

    Remember: patience, confidence —
    Don’t let slip away
    Those ancient weapons that unite
    Our people to this day!
    Revel, dance, you hangmen!
    It won’t be long, I hope,
    Once there was a Haman,
    His fate awaits you, too.

    Revel, dance, you hangmen,
    Jews know what suffering means;
    The most demanding labor
    Won’t tire us in the least.
    “Sweep!” you tell us? So we’ll sweep!
    But as long as you remain,
    There is no point to sweeping —
    This place will not come clean!

    “Wash!” you tell us? So we’ll wash!
    But Cain’s red mark,
    And the blood from Abel’s heart,
    Cannot be washed away.
    Drive us from our homes!
    Cut away our beards!
    Jews, let us be cheerful —
    We’ll see them go to hell!

    Kraków, 2 October 1940

    Translation: US Holocaust Memorial Museum

    (more…)

  • Borekh Gelman

    Who is this he who is following us close
    in your every step there?
    Through every crack in a mouse hole
    you feel his cold watching stare…

    His look is ice cold
    with mustache sticky and damp
    with paws slippery with evil
    crept up on your skin

    You feel his breath everywhere
    it smells bad and is sticky
    he is awake deaf and dumb
    his walk catty soft and quick

    He appears out of darkness
    and slides toward your neck
    and spears darts in your feet
    two sharp knives – every look

    He follows every step
    that hurries in rhythm
    “Not lord not king not god
    will interfere us on our way!…

    Who is the one who awaits
    on each step in the dark?
    he weaves gallows of your head
    and will disturb our way?’’

    At every corner at every door
    a dark figure appears that could
    spreads a gray net for you
    as for an animal in the woods…

    He sniffs and slides at every wall
    his ear is keen and turned to shudder
    He reaches out a hand to you
    that warms a coal for your breast

    So this is who now is gone
    in the shame of himself
    he was sent by his own shame
    by his master like a dog

    for money his brother and his friend
    therefore, his slavish blood that
    crawls with shame will always be
    linked to his name!…

    (more…)

  • Kalman Lis

    (From the series: Time-Motifs)

    Who else like me – for generations kindred with the field, with grass and stalk,
    joined to my border, with air and earth –
    can say: let the axe be like a sword – a ritual slaughterer’s knife sharp in the enemy’s cold hand,
    I’m not going to be moved!

    (more…)

  • Moyshe Shimel (Maurycy Szymel)

    Summer dear, you come home so brown so hot
    You fall on me breathing heavy: what heat!
    And I write about fjords – watery inlets
    And believe my song will protect me
    From the noisy outdoors, the big back yard
    Where people are shouting noisily all day: I buy and I sell

    (more…)

  • Khayim Semiatitski

    1.

    The night – a hungry dark dog –
    has licked the red blood of the west
    and quietly laid down on the earth
    Three crows stand on my roof and curse;
    one pecks at my heart,
    the heart has bloodied my way
    now dogs lick at my ways

    (more…)

  • Hershele (Hersh Danilewicz)

    When the boys arrive
    Together with the girls
    Hearts get lit
    And faces glow in flame

    They will play in love
    Couples stroll together
    The little town is blooming
    A new world is here

    (more…)

  • Hersh Danilewicz / Danilevitsh (1882-1941) was born in the countryside of Lipno (Lipne), and then moved to Warsaw. Hershele, as he was known by the people of Warsaw, was encouraged to write as a youth by Y. L. Peretz. He was one of the founders of the Łódź Yiddish Literary Group. He wrote children’s songs, humorous poems, and translations from Polish and Russian to Yiddish. His songs were so popular they were thought to be folk songs. He died of hunger with his wife and two children in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941. Katsenelson, writing under the pen name of Khayim Goldberg in his poem Di Khronik fun Hershele’s Toit (“The Chronicle of Hershele’s Death”) reports that Hershele left a thousand poems.

    (more…)

  • Miryem (Miriam) Ulinover

    Tell me Bobe dearest wise
    Tell me Beauty Dear
    How this little rose red cherry
    came onto my cheek right here

    (more…)

  • Motl Kozlovski

    Nurses have blue eyes
    like the color of late spring sky

    The dazzle of their white dresses
    cuts through the heavy strange air
    on their lips greets a gentle motherly smile

    (more…)

  • Mordkhe (Mordechai) Gebirtig

    I had a sweet dream
    still feel it so well, peace unfurled
    peace has arrived peace is here
    peace in the whole wide world

    (more…)