''Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II '' is an album by

Six Degrees Records Six Degrees Records is an independent record label noted for its catalog of recordings from international musicians and vocalists. History In 1996, former Windham Hill employees Pat Berry and Bob Duskis founded Six Degrees Records with the i ...

which consists of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

songs written during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. It was nominated for the

61st Annual Grammy Awards The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys hosted. During her opening monologue, Keys brought out Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and fo ...

.Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs Of World War II
a YouTube presentation by Six Degrees Records

History

The team of a Russian Jewish

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

and Yiddish scholar

Moisei Beregovsky Moisei Beregovsky (1892 – 12 August 1961, ; ) was a Soviet Jewish folklorist, musicologist and ethnomusicologist from the Ukrainian SSR who was a key figure in the study of Jewish music. He collected, studied and published about klezmer music, ...

collected hundreds of Jewish songs during 1930–1940s, and planned to publish an anthology. However, during the post-war outbreak of Soviet anti-Semitism Beregovsky was convicted of "Jewish nationalism" and sent to

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. His confiscated archives were returned to his wife. The collection of

wax cylinder Phonograph cylinders (also referred to as Edison cylinders after its creator Thomas Edison) are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their heyday (c. 1896–1916), a name which ...

recordings, of which 600 were made by Beregovsky, was looted by the Nazis but returned after the war. However, when the Cabinet of Jewish Culture of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was liquidated, the recordings disappeared and were believed to be destroyed. "М. Я. Береговский: жизнь и судьба" // Арфы на вербах. – Москва-Иерусалим:

Gesharim Gesharim / Bridging Cultures is a Russian publishing house established in the 1990s which publishes books on Jewish topics in Russian language. It is linked with two associations "Gishrey Tarbut" (in Israel) and "The Bridges of Culture" (in Russia) ...

, 1994. In the 1990s Beregovsky's wax cylinders were discovered in the

Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine The Vladimir Vernadsky, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, VNLU () is the main academic library and main scientific information centre in Ukraine, one of the List of largest libraries, world's largest national library, national libraries. Its ...

and catalogized. His collections were published and republished, and many tunes entered the repertoire of

Klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...

musicians.

Anna Shternshis Anna Shternshis is an Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish studies and the director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include Jewish culture in the Soviet Union; Jewish-Slavic cu ...

, Al and Malka Green Professor in Yiddish Studies and the Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

worked with Beregovsky's paper archives, and ''Yiddish Glory'' is the result of a multi-year project by Shternshis and Psoy Korolenko. Most of the selected Holocaust-related songs had only lyrics, and musical solutions for them were suggested by Sergei Erdenko. It was nominated and shortlisted for the

in the World Music category.

Track listing

From the Six Degrees Records website: *"Afn Hoykhn Barg" – On The High Mountain **A satirical song, lyrics by a Veli Shargorodskii about the war experience of a Jewish soldier in 1943–44; ends with the words "Hitler is kaput!" (Hitler is done for!, a phrase learned by heart by every Soviet person by the end of the war, because that's what surrendering Germans repeated like a mantra.) *"Shpatsir in Vald" – A Walk in the Forest *"Yoshke Fun Odes" – Yoshke From

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

*"Kazakhstan" **

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

was a major destination of Soviet civilians, including 1.4 million Jews (with some 250,000 in Kazakhstan), where at their new workplaces they met the Jews sent to

. The song is about this piece of the Jewish eternal exile experience. For this song Erdenko composed the only new tune, combining Roma, Yiddish and Romanian musical styles. *"Mayn Pulemyot" – My Machine Gun **A Jewish soldier's pride at his machine gun killing the Germans *"Shelakhmones Hitlern" –

Purim Purim (; , ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Genocide, annihilation at the hands of an official of the Achaemenid Empire named Haman, as it is recounted in the Book of Esther (u ...

Gifts For Hitler **compares Hitler with

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian empire under King Ahasuerus#Book of Esther, Ahasuerus, comm ...

, the villain of

*"Taybls Briv" – Taybl's Letter To Her Husband at the Front *"Misha Tserayst Hitlers Daytchland" – Misha Tears Apart Hitler's Germany *Chuvasher Tekhter – Daughters of

Chuvashia Chuvashia, officially known as Chuvash Republic — Chuvashia, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is the homeland of the Chuvash people, a Turkic languages, Turkic ethnic group. Its capital city, capital i ...

, words by Sonya Roznberg, 1942. *"Mames Gruv" – My Mother's Grave **The song a child who visits the grave of the mother who perished in the Holocaust. *"Babi Yar" **About the

Babi Yar massacre Babi Yar () or Babyn Yar () is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and best documented of the massacres too ...

. The song is that of a Jewish soldier (one of half a million who served in the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

) who returns to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

and learns that all his family was massacred. *"Tulchin" **

Tulchyn Tulchyn (, ; ; ; ; ; ) is a city in Vinnytsia Oblast (Oblast, province) of western Ukraine, in the historical region of Podolia. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Tulchyn Raion (Raion, district). Its population is 13,896 (2023 estim ...

was under the Romanian administration during the Holocaust. The song was written by a 10-year-old who lost his family in the ghetto in Tulchin * "Shturemvind" – A Storm Wind *"Fir Zin" – Four Sons *"Kazakhstan" reprise *"Nitsokhn Lid" – Victory Song *"Homens Mapole" – Haman's Defeat *"Tsum Nayem Yor 1944" – Happy New Year 1944

Band

According to the Six Degrees Records webpage:YIDDISH GLORY
Six Degrees Records * Psoy Korolenko, Russian-American singer-songwriter * Sergei Erdenko,

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

violinist, collaborator of

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

and founder of the Roma musical group . * Artur Gorbenko, violinist, pianist, composer for films and television programs, and former concertmaster from the Leningrad Conservatory. * Mikhail Savichev, classical and Romani guitarist, graduate of Russia's Novosibirsk Conservatory, Member of the Loyko group before moving to Spain to study under the mentorship of

Paco de Lucia Paco is a Spanish nickname for Francisco. According to folk etymology, the nickname has its origins in Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order; his name was written in Latin by the order as (father of the community); ...

. *

Sophie Milman Sophie Milman (born 1983) is a Russian-born Canadian jazz vocalist. After emigrating from Russia in the early 1990s, Milman, who is Jewish, spent most of her childhood years in Israel where she listened extensively to jazz. Her family later em ...

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

winning jazz vocalist * Alexander Sevastian, accordionist from Quartetto Gelato * Shalom Bard, clarinetist at the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1906, the TSO gave regular concerts at Massey Hall until 1982, and since then has performed at Roy Thomson Hall. The TSO also manages the Toron ...

, conductor of its youth symphony, and former principal clarinetist at the

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is a major Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert ...

* David Buchbinder, Juno Award-winning trumpeter, composer & producer, founder of Odessa/Havana and artistic director of the New Canadian Global Music Orchestra *

Sasha Lurje Sacha, Sasha, or Sascha may refer to: People * Sasha (name), includes list of people with the name and the variants Sascha or Sacha Musicians * Sacha (singer), born Sacha Visagie, Canadian singer and songwriter * Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alex ...

, Yiddish vocalist *

Isaac Rosenberg Isaac Rosenberg (25 November 1890 – 1 April 1918) was an English poet and artist. His ''Poems from the Trenches'' are recognized as some of the most outstanding poetry written during the First World War. Early life Isaac Rosenberg was born ...

(son of Shternshis and RosenbergFifteen-year-old sang on Grammy-nominated album
/ref>), 12 years old when the project started; performs three songs, including music written by a ten year old Jewish orphan whose parents perished during

. *

, Al and Malka Green Professor in Yiddish Studies and the Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the

The producer and the person who brought the band together is Daniel Rosenberg.Perry King
Songs from the past: U of T researcher's work leads to Grammy nomination
''University of Toronto News'', February 6, 2019

References

{{Authority control Yiddish-language albums Anti-fascist music 2018 albums Songs about the Holocaust Songs of World War II Six Degrees Records artists