S'BRENT (1939-1942).
Kroke [i.e Cracow]: Tsentrale Yidishe Historisher Komisie baym Ts.K. fun Poilishe Yidn opt Kroke, 1946. Item #42914
1st edition, original illustrated paper wrappers, 12mo, 34 pages, plus [3] pages of music and [2] leaves of plates. Errata slip present. 21 cm. In Yiddish. Title translates as, "It's Burning." Mordecai Gebirtig, (1877--1942) was a “Yiddish folk poet….Many of his poems were put to music. They were sung and performed in concert halls, theaters, at public meetings, on the radio, by street singers, and by regular Jews like those he wrote about. During World War II, Gebirtig's poems were sung in the Cracow Ghetto (where he was imprisoned), in other ghettos, and in concentration camps….His poems from…[the last] stage [of his life]....covers the few months he lived inside the Cracow Ghetto—from April 1942 to June 4, 1942, the day he was killed by the Nazis. His poems at that point mirror his gloom and fear near the end of his life. About 15--20 of the poems Gebirtig wrote during the war are known. Most were published in 1946 in Cracow in a special volume titled S'Brent [This volume].. The book includes a forward by Joseph Wolf, a member of the Cracow underground. The poem S'Brent was written in 1938 after a pogrom took place in Przytyk; it influenced many young people to resist the Nazis” (Yad Vashem). “One of Gebirtig's best-known songs is ‘S'brent’ (It is Burning), written in 1938 in response to the 1936 Przytyk pogrom in the shtetl (small town) of Przytyk. 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 of German-occupied Europe. Since then the song, in the original Yiddish and in its Hebrew translation titled ‘Ha-Ayyarah Bo'eret’ ‘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 commemoration” (Wikipedia) Series: Bikher fun der Voyevodisher Yidishe Historische Komisie in Kroke, nr. 1 (5). OCLC lists 9 copies worldwide. SUBJECT(S): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poetry. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Songs and music. OCLC: 19302681. Rebacked. Heavy tape stains to covers and final page at spine, impacting first letter in title. Rear cover replaced, front cover edgeworn. PO name blotted out on margin of frontis (image not affected) Fair condition, but complete(H-42-17-ABEX-'l).
Price: $250.00