A PRIEST WAS MURDERED IN KALISZ
Lyrics: Leyb Diament
Music: Psoy Korolenko
Arrangement: Beth Silver
English translation and transliteration: Eli Jany
Originally titled “He did not succeed” – Es Hot Im Nit Gerotn, written by Leyb Diament, a refugee from the Polish city of Kalisz, this piece tells the story of an escape from the Nazi occupied city and about the murder of the Catholic priest, Roman Pawlowski (1878–1939), who had refused to collaborate with the German invaders in his native town of Chocz. Loosely based on historical events, this work describes how Germans rounded up young Jews and forced them to bury a murdered priest at a Jewish cemetery, hoping to provoke a pogrom by Polish residents against Jews. But the pogrom did not happen. The piece is one of the rarest examples of any documentation of Jewish escape from Kalisz into the Soviet Union from the point of view of a refugee.
English
Yiddish Transliteration
I will tell you a sad story
about the city Kalisz, a city in Poland –
how Hitler wanted to eradicate the Jews
and wash his hands clean,
but he didn’t succeed.
The foolish German[s] wanted to start a
pogrom against Jews
using a Polish priest from the town Chocz
Forty kilometers by foot, exhausted,
weakened,
the slaughterer[s] brought the priest to
Kalisz.
With bound eyes they led him,
and here is what happened to him:
In front of a large crowd,
they stood him against a wall,
along with four Jewish boys.
They forced the four Jewish boys
to shoot the priest.
They forced them to carry the priest away
and bury him in the Jewish cemetery…
The Poles saw all of this,
but no pogrom happened.
Afterwards, the Germans captured
everyone;
they shot some and hanged others.
Others they drove to Germany for forced
labour.
I remained alive by a miracle.
I escaped to the Russian border;
the German bullets didn’t hit me.
fun der shtot kalish, a shtot aza in poyln
a troyerike mayse vel ikh aykh dertseyln.
viazoy hitler hot gevolt di yidn oysrotn,
un zikh di hent reynvashn,
nor s’hot im nit gerotn.
a pogrom af yidn hot gevolt der narisher
daytsh
durkh a poylishn ksyondz funem shtetl khatsh.
fertsik kilometer tsufus, tsebrokhn,
farshmakht
hot der koyler dem ksyondz keyn kalish
gebrakht.
mit farbundene oygn hot men im gefirt,
un do ot vos mit im hot pasirt:
far a groysn parad geshtelt
im tsu der vant,
mit im fir yidishe yungen banand.
tseshisn dem ksyondz hot men getsvungen
di yidishe fir yungen.
zey zoln dem ksyondz avektrogn
afn yidishn beysoylem bagrobn…
di polyakn hobn dos alts gezen,
nor keyn pogrom iz nit geshen.
nokhdem hobn di daytshn alemen
gefangen
vemen geshosn un vemen gehangen.
vemen af katorge keyn germanye
fartribn.
ikh bin durkh a nes lebn geblibn.
tsu der rusisher grenets bin ikh antlofn,
di daytshishe koyln hobn mikh nit getrofn.
Source Documents & Recordings
DEVELOPED BY DUMASTAR
Source: VNLU, fond 190, folder 151, ll. 13–14.