"I wander through Theresienstadt"

[Jude]

Has anyone here heard of Ilse Weber? She was a Jewish poet and author of children's books. When the Nazis occupied Czechslovakia in 1939, she and her husband Willi managed to send their older son Hanus to safety, first to England and then after the war to Sweden.

She was interned in Theresienstadt along with Willi and her younger son Tomas in 1942. During her time there, she worked as a children's nurse, and continued to write poems and songs, often singing them for the children as she accompanied herself on guitar.

When Willi was deported to Auschwitz in 1944, Ilse volunteered to join him along with Tomas, so as to keep the family together. She and the boy were sent to the gas chamber on arrival. Willi survived them by 30 years, and Hanus is actually still alive (well, he was as of 2012 at least).

Just before leaving for Auschwitz, Willi hurriedly buried a collection of about 60 of his wife's poems and songs under a garden shed. After the war, he returned and found them undisturbed.

I recorded three of them last month. Here is the first one, "Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt":



Rough translation:

I wander through Theresienstadt, my heart as heavy as lead,
Until my path reaches its end,
There close by the bastion.

I stand there on the bridge, and look out into the valley,
How I wish I could go far away,
How I wish I could return home.

"Homeward!" You lovely word,
You make my heart heavy.
They took my home away from me,
I no longer have one.

I turn around, troubled and exhausted,
So weary in myself:
Theresienstadt, Theresienstadt!
When will suffering ever end?
When will we be free again?


More to follow...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow, Jude!

[Primula Baggins]

Beautiful and powerful, Jude.

[Jude]

The second, "Und der Regen rinnt", was no doubt written with Hanus in mind:



And the rain pours, and the rain pours,
In the darkness I think of you, my boy.
High are the mountains, deep is the sea,
My heart is weary and full of longing.
And the rain pours, and the rain pours,
Why are you so far away, my boy?

And the rain pours, and the rain pours,
God himself has separated us, my boy.
You don't have to see this suffering and misery,
You don't have to walk upon these stony streets.
And the rain pours, and the rain pours,
You haven't forgotten me, my boy?

[Jude]

The last song has more of an upbeat feel to it: part of her genius was in describing the horrors she witnessed using simple, folk-like tunes. Here, she describes saying a final goodbye to a friend, hiding her true feelings with a forced cheerfulness:



Ade, Kamerad!

So long, Comrade! This is where our paths separate,
I have to be off in the morning.
I take my leave of you, they're taking me away from here,
I'm off with the Polish transport.

You often gave me courage, you've been faithful and true,
Always ready to help.
One clasp of your hand was enough to chase troubles away,
We often shared sorrows together.

So long, Comrade! I'm sad about you.
This parting weighs heavily on me.
Don't lose your courage. I've been good to you,
And now we'll never see each other again.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The sadness of what she is saying juxtaposed against the more upbeat music is really poignant.

[narya]

You have a beautiful singing voice, Jude. Thank you for letting us hear such evocative songs.

[Impenitent]

Her work is starkly poignant.

So much terrible loss.

[Teremia]

Thank you so much for these songs, Jude!

[Pearly Di]

Oh my goodness, Jude, this is beautiful and heart-breaking.

I can't imagine the suffering of this gifted lady and her family, and the incredible humanity and creativity she showed in the face of it.

All you can say is: the goodness of their spirits live on, while their enemies are only remembered with contempt. Love is stronger than evil, but that doesn't nullify the terrible cost.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Jude, Terezín is an important place in my family's history, so these songs are particularly moving to me. I am so grateful for you in sharing them. With your permission, I would like to share them with some of my family.

[Jude]

Of course! But you don't need my permission - they're on youtube, so they're accessible to all.

I assume you mean that some of your family were interred at Terezín. Can you tell me what happened?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't know really know any details, other than that so far as I know they were transported to Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and perished there. My great grandparents emigrated to Brooklyn but most of their family remained in different parts of eastern Europe. I don't really know the details of how some of them ended up in Theresienstadt, unfortunately. None of that part of the family survived the war.

And yes, I do recognize that youtube is accessible to all, but I thought it would be polite to ask anyway.

(Is it terrible that my first response to your question was to just quote Aragorn from the FOTR film responding to Frodo's question about what happened to Lúthien and just say "they died"?)

[Primula Baggins]

I don't have words. We were all in America then, and because of the oddities of generations, all my relatives were either too old or too young to serve in that war.

Every male relative I know of in my grandfathers' generation served in WWI (except my father's father, who was just too young to serve at the end of the war). Their sons were all too young for WWII.

[Pearly Di]

(Is it terrible that my first response to your question was to just quote Aragorn from the FOTR film responding to Frodo's question about what happened to Lúthien and just say "they died"?)

No.

[Passdagas the Brown]

The sadness of what she is saying juxtaposed against the more upbeat music is really poignant.

This.

[Beutlin]

Very beautiful, Jude.

I also really like your (very subtle) accent in the first two songs. It has a certain Eastern European quality to it.

PS: (I am confused, isn't "Jude" a female name?).

Are you familiar with her lullaby "Wiegala"? Some say, that Ilse Weber sang it to one of her sons while walking to the gas chamber:

[Jude]

Thanks! I do know "Wiegala", actually - I once played the piano accompaniment for a mezzo in that song. It may have been the song that she sang as they entered the gas chamber. What we know is what an inmate told Hanus years later - he saw her in the line with Tomas and about 15 other children, and risked his neck to come and talk to her. He said that he remembered her from Terezin, singing for the children. She asked if they were really to take showers, and he told her the truth. He also offered some advice: sing to the children to keep them calm, and sit them down on the floor so that the gas would work faster. Years later he found Hanus and told him of that meeting.

PS: (I am confused, isn't "Jude" a female name?).

No.

[Beutlin]

I did not know the story of the inmate. Thank you for telling me!



Apparently, I really thought for more than a decade that Jude was a female nickname for Judith or something similar. I always assumed that that Beatles' song was about some girl named Jude. Oh well, you learn something new every day. (I am terrible with song lyrics...I never pay any attention to them.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It can be either, but Hey Jude was written by Paul McCartney for John Lennon's son, Julian.

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