Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism. Against Nationalism and Injustice. Please share this statement and don't stand with folded arms!
It burns! Brothers! It burns! Don't stand with folded arms. Don't just stand, put out the fire!
"S'brent" (It is burning) is one of the most popular songs in Yiddish language. It was written by the poet and songwriter Mordechai Gebirtig (1877-1942), who spent almost his entire life in Kraków's Jewish quarter Kazimierz and was killed by Germans in Krakow`s Ghetto on 4 June 1942. Gebirtig wrote “S'brent, undzer shtetl brent“ (“It’s Burning, Our Town Is Burning“) in 1938. His best-known song was a prophetic vision of the nightmare to come and became the unofficial hymn of the ghetto uprisings and the Jewish partisans.
Making a living working as a carpenter, he saw himself as a “zinger fun noyt“ (“Singer of need“). “S'brent“ and other songs like “Kinder-yorn“, “Arbetloze-marsh“ or “Blayb gezunt mir, Kroke“ have survived the Shoa and are sung until today by renowned artists from all over the world. His legacy is not only of melodies and lyrics, but also on his descriptions of Jewish life in Poland - under the Austrians, the Poles and the Germans.
In 2017, we will commemorate the 140th anniversary of birth and the 75th anniversary of murder of Mordechai Gebirtig. We would like to invite all people to remember and honor the life and legacy of the great Yiddish poet and singer and bring him back to the public awareness.
S'brent by Mordechai Gebirtig - Collage on tape vocals, cello & viola. Contemporary interpretation of archival recordings (Yad Vashem).
Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism. Against Nationalism and Injustice. Please share this statement and don't stand with folded arms!
It burns! Brothers! It burns! Don't stand with folded arms. Don't just stand, put out the fire!
Gabriela von Seltmann - art director & production
Uwe von Seltmann - producer
DJ Lenar - arrangement, editing & mix
Dorota Jarema - vocal & vocal arrangement
Marek Gajczak - DOP & editing
Bartłomiej Tyciński - bass line arrangement
Karalina Orsik-Sauter - viola
Dominika Żur - cello
Anna Rozenfeld - Yiddish consultation
© Foundation Art, History & Apfelstrudel (http://aha.org.pl)
It burns! Brothers! It burns!
And you stand and look around
With folded arms
Our village burns!
It burns! Brothers! It burns!
Don't stand with folded arms
Don't just stand, put out the fire!
Because our village burns!
