Undzer shtetl brent Our Town Is Burning
Creator(s)
- Mordecai Gebirtig (Lyricist)
- Mordecai Gebirtig (Composer)
Biographical History
Mordechai Gebirtig (Yiddish: מרדכי געבירטיג), born Mordecai Bertig (4 May 1877 – 4 June 1942), was an influential Yiddish poet and songwriter of the interwar period. He was shot by Germans in the Kraków Ghetto, which was set up by Nazi Germany formally on 3 March 1941 in the new General Government district of occupied Poland, during the Holocaust.
Scope and Content
Mordecai Gebirtig, born in Krakow in 1877, made his living as a carpenter but was celebrated throughout the Yiddish-speaking world as a folk poet and songwriter-the "troubadour of the Jewish people." During World War II, he continued to write and perform, using the medium of song to chronicle his experiences under the German occupation. In June 1942, Gebirtig, age 65, was shot and killed by German soldiers when he refused to comply with a deportation order. Gebirtig wrote Our Town is Burning in response to a 1936 pogrom in the Polish town of Przytyk. In retrospect, the song seems prophetic of the Holocaust, but Gebirtig had hoped its message ("Don't stand there, brothers, douse the fire!") would be heard as an urgent call to action. He was reportedly gratified to learn, during the war, that Krakow's underground Jewish resistance had adopted Our Town is Burning as its anthem. The song Our Town is Burning remains a popular recital piece that is performed at Holocaust commemoration ceremonies around the world.
Note(s)
Performed by Daniel Kempin
Subjects
- Kraków (Poland)
Genre
- Music.
- Recorded Sound