RE: song from Rivesaltes

[Michel Borzykowski <borzykowski...>]

A song's trip round the world...

A few weeks ago Sylvie Braitman asked the list about a song that was sung in
the French detention camp of Rivesaltes during the WW2. I asked my friend
Betty SAVILLE who also stood there: She didn't remember the song... but
asked
further to the AEDCY in Paris. As they had no idea, they contacted Szulim
ROZENBERG who remembered the music but not the lyrics... Nevetheless, Szulim
had a friend, Henri MOKOLOW, in Australia who got them...
And then all the way back to you!

The song was often sung in Jewish holiday camps already before the war,
although some lyrics could have been changed in Rivesaltes.

Here they are:

Fun dem stav biz promenade
In der shtilkait fun der nakht,
Zing ikh dir a serenade
Kum arois tsu mir main prakht
Kh'hob gebrakht dir a kartofl,
Kum arois un es zikh on,
Oib s'iz dir vainik, vel ikh dir zingen
Lider, fun a beigl mit mon,
Tayere bas-malke her ois main geruf,
Kum arois tsu mir, ikh ervarte dikh
Baim stav.

Zolst nisht kumen on pantofl
Kenst nokh krign dem katar
Gikher shneler der kartofl,
Er iz dokh in a grois gefar
Es dernentert zikh a koze
Akh pardon, s'iz gor a ferd,
Oib azoi, hob nisht kain moire
Ikh bin a held - kh'hob ales in d'rerd.
Tayere bas-malke her ois main geruf,
Kum arois tsu mir, ikh ervarte dikh
Baim stav


Please, write me off list if you wish to contact the over-mentionned
persons.

BTW, if you're interested in Rivesaltes, don't miss the very moving
documentary JOURNAL DE RIVESALTES (1997, Switzerland) by Jacqueline Veuve,
about a young Swiss nurse who worked there in 1941-42.

Michal

borzykowski (at) infomaniak(dot)ch
Homepage AMJ: http://www.club-association.ch/amj
Geneva klezmer page: http://borzykowski.users.ch

-----------------------original message-----------------------
Subject: Rivesaltes
 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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