Rivesaltes

[Sylvie Braitman <curlySylvie...>]

 I met Walter at a gig I did for the Holocaust Center of Northern California
last August. He is a photographer and he told me he wanted to teach me a
song he had heared when he was in the French detention camp of Rivesaltes.
He came to my home and I spent a very emotional afternoon listening to his
stories and writing down the song. When it was all over and we played it on
the piano, he sobbed. He had not heard the song since 1942. And in fact, in
the camp, he didn't like the song, he thought it was cheezy! Only 20 years
after, in the States, did the song come back to his memory.
He was deeply moved and grateful for my transcribing. I felt like I finally
understood why I was a musician!
He remembers only half of the words. Here they are:
SIX NOTES Bas Malke 4 NOTES Mitternacht.8 NOTES .Kum aroys du sheyne pracht.
Ikh hob dikh mitgebrakht a kartofel. Kum aroys un fress dikh an. Dan sheyne
bas malke1 NOTE kum dikh aroys. Ikh varte dikh beym shtro.
Refrain: From Toulouse 1 NOTE bis Rivesaltes 16 NOTES un oyf mayn kever
bring mir mit tsvay halb geshlugene hoysshanes.

The "NOTES" are pitches of the melody, whose words he has forgotten. Some of
the Yiddish might look Daytsh, since he is a German who never spoke Yiddish.
The melody is lovely, minor verse, major refrain, and its sounds very
Russian. I do not need the translation of the words.

If anybody knows the song, knows somebosy who knows the song, or somebody
who was in Rivesaltes.....you know what to do!

Thanks,

Sylvie

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