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[Page 356]

Yizkor
(Unrhymed translation)

Fruma Gulkovitch-Berger

Translated from the Yiddish by Harvey Spitzer z”l

Today I have yorzeit - my heart is pained,
And I see the executioner with the black swastika
Who murdered my people - burned and roasted,
The cruel whirlwind spread their ashes.

I say yizkor for you, holy martyrs,
Scattered all over, uncountable dead.
It was your fault - but your only sin
Was that you bore the name “Jewish child”.

I say yizkor, I light yorzeit candles,
For millions, tortured fathers, mothers and child.
For slaughtered brothers - I still feel their pain…
For violated sisters - I still hear their scream!

Like a proud Jew, like a courageous partisan,
They show the enemy that the spirit of the Maccabees is alive!
I say yizkor for you, unknown hero,
Who fell in battle on the bloody field.

I say kaddish for all the millions,
The yorzeit candles burn - they remind the world
Of the unequal fight of evil against a helpless ghetto
When the last Jew fell in the already late hour…

The generation after me asks, doubting and wondering:
How did such cruelty happen in the 20th century?
Is this the country of Goethe and Heine
Which murdered six million of my brothers?

Was this perhaps all a bad dream?
But I alone know that there was no Redeemer!
When heads fell, shot from every direction,
Bloodied heads - in the deep black pits.

I say yizkor - my brain in on fire.
And I see the executioner, Hitler the murderer.
My head is bowed, my heart is grieved,
I ask you, world - How can it be that your face is not ashamed?

 

Memorial to the Martyrs of Korelitz
Inscription: May their soul be bound to the soul of the living

 

[not numbered = Page 358]


Sefer Korelitz Publication Committee

 

 
 
Hassia Turtel Oberzhansky   Michael Walzer-Fass,
Editor
  Yaacov Abramowich
 
 
 
Malka Poluzhsky   Mordechai Malkieli   Chiena Caspi

[not numbered = Page 359]


Committee of Korelitzer Society in Israel

 

 
 
Malka Avni (Mordechowitz)   Michael Beigin,
Committee Chairman
  Leah Lubchansky-Kornfeld
 
 
 
Yaacov Poluzhsky   Abraham Kuznietz   Noah Gershenovsky

 

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