The Lost Yiddish Songs Of World War II

Many of these lyrics – unperformed since 1947 and rediscovered six decades later in the National Library of Ukraine – “seethe with resentment but emphasize triumph. ‘Victory Song,’ recorded in 1947, encourages listeners to drink heartily and rejoice; soon ‘those German murderers will be out of our lives forever.’ Others mock their invaders, scoffing at their incompetence. … Some songs are plainly heartbreaking.”