Lyrics: Folk, recorded from several survivors of Pechera camp, August 1945

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Music: Folk

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Arrangement: Drew Jurecka

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English translation and transliteration: Eli Jany

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Structured as a folk ballad, the song documents some of the most important segments of memories about Pechera, a camp in the Vynnitsia region of Ukraine, designed to kill inmates through starvation. Between 1941 and 1943, about 4,000 people died there

(The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945: Volume III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany Indiana University Press. p.743). The camp was operated primarily by local gendarmes. The song depicts one such guard, Lukyan Smetansky, especially known for

his mercilessness. Survivors described him as a short, angry drunk, remembered for his brutality, taking bribes and not honoring them, and committing acts of violence against Jews just for fun. In 1945, as the legend goes, he was killed on the spot by a Jewish officer soon after the Red Army liberated Pechera.

English

Yiddish Transliteration

Oy, I will sing for you, people, oy, oy, oy,

a song,

oy, the song of the Jewish people, oy, oy,

oy, itself.

Oy, I will sing you a new song, people,

of what happened to the Jews in Pechera

Camp.

Once they expelled us from our homes,

oy, they drove us how people used to

drive cattle, oy, oy, oy, cattle.

They rounded up all the Jews

on the grounds of the old sanatorium.

Oy, with nothing to eat or drink they

tortured us,

the door and gate were blocked for us,

oy, oy, oy, blocked.

People fell like flies,

fell both by day and by night.

As soon as they let us approach the gate,

Smetanski came out with a big rifle,

oy, oy, oy, rifle,

Two innocent Jews approached

And he shot them for no reason at all.

Oy, with nothing to eat or drink they

tortured us,

The door and gate were blocked for us,

oy, oy, oy, blocked.

The German Police Meister came in

and he thought about shooting, oy, us all.

He came in with such a thought

of tearing off the last of our skin,

oy, oy, oy, our skin.

A Bolshevik defender came in

and he saved us from death.

Oy, in Stalin’s land the Jews lived

happily

and they knew of no evil.

Hitler the slaughterer came in

and he laid waste, oy, to our lives.

oy, di lid vel ikh aykh, mentshn, oy, oy,

oy, zingen,

oy, di lid funem yidishn folk, oy, oy,

oy, aleyn.

oy, a naye lid vel ikh aykh mentshn zingen,

vos mit di yidn in petshorer lager iz

geshen.

vi me hot undz nor fun der heym aroysgetribn,

oy, getribn hot men undz vi amol dem

skot, oy, oy, oy, dem skot.

tsunoyfgetribn hot men ale yidn

ba der alter sanatorye af dem plats.

oy, on esn un on trinken hot men undz

gemutshet

tir un toyer zaynen geven far undz farshpart,

oy, oy, oy, farshpart.

mentshn zaynen gefaln vi di flign,

gefaln say batog un say banakht.

vi me hot undz nor tsum toyer tsugelozn

iz aroys smetanski mit a groyser biks,

oy, oy, oy, biks,

tsugegangen tsvey umshuldike yidn,

hot er zey geshosn gor umzist.

oy, on esn un on trinken hot men undz

gemutshet

tir un toyer zaynen geven far undz farshpart,

oy, oy, oy, farshpart.

arayngekumen der daytsher politsmayster

un er hot undz alemen shisn, oy, fartrakht.

er iz arayngekumen mit aza gedank

aroptsuraysn fun undz di letste hoyt,

oy, oy, oy, di hoyt.

arayngekumen a bolshevik a meylets

un er hot undz opgeratevet fun toyt.

oy, ba stalinen hobn di yidn gelebt zeyer

gliklekh

un zey hobn keyn shlekhts nit gevust.

arayngekumen iz hitler der koyler

un er hot undzer lebn, oy, farvist.

Source Documents & Recordings

Source: VNLU, fond 190, folder 132, ll. 228–230