Folk Songs About The Holocaust

April 19, 1943 is the date the Warsaw Ghetto uprising began. Yom Ha'Shoah is Holocaust Rememberance Day. It falls on the 27th day of the month of Nissan in the Hebrew calendar, unless that is a Friday or Saturday, in which case it is observed on the preceding Thursday or following Sunday (accounts differ).

27 Nissan 5766 = Wednesday, 26 April 2006
27 Nissan 5767 = Sunday, 15 April 2007
27 Nissan 5768 = Friday, 2 May 2008

January 27, 1945 is the date Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. The British liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. Dachau was liberated on April 29, 1945 by the US 45th Infantry Division.

[played in recent years]
Tom Paxton\ Train For Auschwitz\ Best of Broadside (VA)\ Smithsonian/Folkways
Rod Macdonald\ Auschwitz\ The Man on the Ledge\ Shanachie
Al Grierson\ The Flowers of Auschwitz\ Things That Never Added Up To Me\ Folkin' Eh!
John Flynn\ Hope Sleeps\ Dragon\ Metta (about Anne Frank)
The Klezmatics\ Mayn Shvester Khaye\ The Well\ Green Linnet
(in Yiddish, so can't understand the lyrics)

[Bill Hahn playlist]
MARGOT LEVERETT &
THE KLEZMER MTN. BOYS       A Redl & A Volich (Theme)
               Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mtn. Boys www.margotleverett.com


DAVID PIPER                Never Again
                 Lemonade Shoes www.trough.com
CRAIG SONNENFELD                   Anne Frank's Eyes
                       Storm Clouds Rising www.craigsonnenfeld.com
STUDS TERKEL           O Sacred World
                     The Songs of Pete Seeger www.appleseedrec.com
TOMMY SANDS /
DOLORES KEANE /
VEDRAN SMAILOVIC               Where Have All The Flowers Gone
                      The Songs of Pete Seeger www.appleseedrec.com


MARTIN SIMPSON /
JESSICA RADCLIFFE                Turn Turn Turn
                        Seeds-The Songs of Pete Seeger Vol. 3 www.appleseedrec.com
JOY KATZEN-GUTHRIE           Eli Eli
              How Good & How Pleasant www.joyfulnoise.net
ISRAEL SINGER               Chasidic Kaddish
                           Cantorial Pieces www.israelsinger.com


WOLF KRAKOWSKI          Yiddishe Maykholim
                         Transmigrations www.kamea.com
JAN PEERCE                   Almonds & Raisins
                        Yiddish Masterpieces Israel Music
MARDECHAI HERSMAN                  Bread, Meat & Fish
                       Yiddish Masterpieces Israel Music


PEISACHKE BURSTYN              Shpielendig
                                                  78 recording Columbia
SUSAN LEVITON                      Dem Zeydns Nigndl
                          Zingendik gorelev@aol.com


RICHARD TUCKER                  The Exodus Song
                         Hatikvah! www.smsp.com

[also]
Al Stewart: Trains

These were compiled by Susan Forbes Hansen with input from folk DJs:

Dave CROSSLAND: The Ballad of Joseph Schultz

Jack HARDY: Dachau (The Passing)

Peter HIMMELMAN: Untitled (Flown This Acid World).
12 minutes long and worth every second of it.  In every generation,
there are those whose goal is to kill every Jew on this earth.

Stuart KABAK: Numbers (?)

Bernice LEWIS: Ways to Survive (Isle of Spirit), Blue  Bhikku/Sanctuary

Richard MEYER: Century's End (A Letter from the Open Sky)

Leon ROSSELSON: The Song of Martin Fontasch (Intruders)

KIM WALLACH: One Was A Guard (Paddle on The Rahway), Black Socks LP

Also, both Bill Hahn and Rich Warren suggested Peat Bog Soldiers, which I
didn't realize (until Rich supplied the information) was sung by the Jews as a
code song (as some of the African-American spirituals were during slavery) as
they worked in the camps.

Cathy WINTER, "Lost Voices" from her album "Breath on  My Fire":
"Oh we are the lost ones you wish you could forget
For we all  lost our precious lives in such untimely death
We're the witches burning at  the stake and slaves in cargo holds
We're the native peoples of this land,  our blood mixed among the stones.". .
.
One line in it, "Six million died in  Hitler's hands, of death do you not
tire?">>

The Song of the Partisans (there are many recordings
of this, but  also many other similarly titled songs--if you find one in
Yiddish,
that's the one.  Many synagogues sing it during "Yizkor"  memorial
services.)

Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust  [BOX SET]
Various Artists  * Number of Discs: 4   *  Label: Rhino Records
* Catalog: #75600   * ASIN:  B00004R5Z2


From other sources:
This Train, Indigo Girls

Fred Small / Denmark 1942
(also covered by Flip Breskin)

Adam Brodsky / ?

Jerry Silverman:  "Tsigaynerlid/Gypsy Song"  THE UNDYING FLAME: SONGS &
BALLADS FROM THE HOLOCAUST [Syracuse University Press]
((Part of a book/CD combination))

Curtis and Loretta\ Angel of Bergen-Belsen

Rosalie Gerut & Friends: "We Are Here" WE ARE HERE [Blue Hill]

(VA) "Zog Nit Keynmol (Never Say)" PARTISANS OF VILNA, SONGS OF THE WORLD
WAR II JEWISH RESISTANCE [Flying Fish]

Theodore Bikel/Frieda Enoch: "The Jewish Partisan" RISE UP & FIGHT, SONGS
OF THE JEWISH PARTISANS [US Holocaust Museum]

Massel Klezmorim\ Die Kale Basetzn\ Best of Yiddish Songs and Klezmer Music\ Euclid

I Remember Warsaw \ DAVID ROVICS \ Behind the Barricades \ AK Pr ???

Laurie Lewis: "Peat Bog Soldiers" ("Spain in my Heart", Appleseed)
 [this song was made in one of the first german concentration camps,
established right after hitler took power in 1933. smuggled out, it became
an anti-fascist anthem, and was carried to spain by german volunteers in the
international brigade]


La Musique dans les Ghettos et les Camps de Concentration

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Folk Music Song Themes Last modified