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.

  • M Goldshteyn

    Every evening we meet on a busy street
    as he scurries along like a beggar along walls
    and his eyes carry sorrow
    and heavy it weighs in his silent hands

    (more…)

  • Mordkhe (Mordechai) Gebirtig

    Once I had a home, a warm safe place
    a bit of furnishings like poor people have
    securely fastened roots of a tree
    I had tied to my poverty

    (more…)

  • Borekh Olitski

    1

    Not for nothing do childish cries
    sound against my blue windows all night.

    In the morning a mother tossed her 6-day old child
    on to the corner of Karmelicka Street
    Like a wet and broken cradle
    the child lay on the corner at the neck of the street.
    Bearded men came
    well dressed women
    and even the day that bent over
    like a blond waiter
    with a gilded tray
    with white napkins in hand
    and distributed the joy of July

    (more…)

  • Borekh Olitzki (1907-1941) born in Turzysk (Trisk / Turiis’k), Volhynia, the middle brother in a literary family. Borekh was educated in a kheder (religious school). He lost his father during the First World War, and moved to Ratno (Ratne) where he lived with an uncle. He taught throughout Volhynia, and later in Łódź and Warsaw where he was beloved by his students and regarded as a one of the more talented poets of the new generation of Jewish writers.

    Due to passport difficulties he was forced to live in Lachowicze (Lekhovitsh / Lyakhovichi) where he was killed when the Nazis occupied the town on 24 June 1941.

    A single collection of his poems was published after his death at the initiative of his brother Leyb, titled Mayn blut is oysgemisht (My Blood Is Mixed, 1951)

    (more…)

  • Ber Shnaper

    From Old-fashioned Themes

    Every day at early morning –
    When I open the door to my day
    I believe:
    From today on I start to live

    (more…)

  • Ber Shnaper (1906-1939) was born in Lwów (Lviv / Lvov / Lemberg), the son of a poor cobbler. He studied at the Vienna Hebrew Teachers Seminary. He wrote for a large number of periodicals, and also produced several monographs. Not much is known about his life.

    His poetry volume Bloe Verter is available online.

    Sources:

  • Kalman Lis

    Today my life came to an end,
    Ekh! To hell with such a life as I am living!
    I saw blue children, little hands outstretched
    begging something to be given…

    (more…)

  • Shmuel Vulman

    1.

    Right now – stream your brightest rays
    melt brightness into my eyes
    and pull me into white light
    swimming into a light stream

    (more…)

  • Shmuel Vulman (1896-1941) was born in Kałuszyn, near Warsaw into a poor Hassidic family. He moved to Warsaw in 1917, and became active in the left Labour Zionists. He published poetry in many Yiddish journals, wrote a number of popular books, and also translated works from other languages into Yiddish.

    When the Nazis invaded Poland, he escaped to Białystok which was under Soviet rule, and was persecuted for his prior critical attitude toward Bolshevism. When the Nazis invaded Russia, he moved to Kremenits (in modern Ukraine), where he was killed by the Nazis along with fellow writers Sh. Zaromb and Yerakhmiel Nayberg.

    Vulman also published under the names: Y.-Sh. Prager, Sh.-Z. Vulf, L. (Leyzer) Felzner, Sh. V. Man, A. Masholnu, Sh. V., and Shin-vov, among others.

    (more…)

  • Ber Horovits

    Hot nights
    have drunk
    our stammering
    Naked we
    rolled around on roses
    Millions of songs
    died then

    (more…)