Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.286 January 19, 1995 1) Photos of deported children (Gaston L. Schmir) 2) Including home town with the signature (Henry Mullish) 3) A poem by Glatshteyn (Harvey Spiro) 4) Glatshteyn and Ozick (Mikhl Herzog) 5) More on tifle (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 15:39:47 -0500 (EST) From: glschm@minerva.cis.yale.edu Subject: Photos of deported children I realize that the following announcement is only marginally related to Mendele's concerns, but I hope that the shames will accept my rationalization that the people involved were largely Yiddish-speaking, and hence that this matter falls within Mendele's purview. According to data collected by Serge Klarsfeld approximately 76 000 Jews were deported from France to the death camps, mainly Auschwitz. Included in this total were about 11 100 children under 18. In October 1994, Klarsfeld published a remarkable book of 1552 p, entitled "Memorial des Enfants Juifs Deportes de France" which not only presented lists of these children, grouped by convoy of deportation with AGE, place of birth, and last known address in France, but also photographs of some 1485 of the deported children. The purpose of this posting is to bring this extraordinary work to the attention of the Mendele list. It is planned to publish a supplementary volume of photographs. Any Mendelniks or their relatives or friends who may be able to supply photographs of the murdered children are urged to do so. Photographs or orders for the book (500 F) should be sent to : F.F.D.J.F. 32, rue la Boetie 75008 Paris FRANCE Gaston L. Schmir 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 12:29:41 -0400 (EDT) From: mullish@acfcluster.nyu.edu Subject: Including home town with the signature In reading the many interesting discussions on Mendele I am often elated to find that contributions come from all four corners of the globe. However, it is not always clear from where a particular posting emanates. I therefore suggest to all members of the list that whenever a contribution is sent, that the signature includes the town of origin (and possibly the country) so that we can get a better feel for, at least, the physical breadth of our discussions. Henry Mullish New York City [A fine idea. Let's hope it takes hold. Please note that this applies to home town only. Degrees, titles, affiliations remain treyf. nm] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jan 18 13:11:04 1995 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: A poem by Glatshteyn For another taste of Glatshteyn's poetry, here are excerpts reflecting one of his major themes: the Holocaust and antisemitism. Translation is by Richard Fein, from his book of Glatshteyn's selected poems. YIVO transliteration is mine: "mea culpa" in advance. "A gute nakht, velt," (Good night, world), is possibly Glatshteyn's most well-known poem. Glatshteyn's depressing visit to Poland in 1934 gave him a view of a formerly vibrant Jewish world disintegrating under the inexorable spread of virulent antisemitism. The poem, written _before_ the Holocaust (1938), is a scathing rejection of European "culture," with its "flabby democracies" and "cold sympathy compresses" and Jew- hate. A gute nakht, breyte velt, groyse, shtinkendike velt. Nisht du, nor ikh farhak dem toyer. Mit dem langn khalat, Mit der fayerdiker, geler lat, Mit dem shtoltsn trot, Oyf mayn eygenem gebot -- Gey ikh tsurik in geto. Vish op, tsetret ale geshmadte shpurn. Kh'valger zikh in dayn mist. Loyb, loyb, loyb, Tsehoykert yidish lebn. Kherem, velt, oyf dayne treyfene kulturn. Khotch alts iz farvist, Shtoyb ikh zikh in dayn shtoyb, Troyrik yidish lebn. ... A gute nakht. Kh'gib dir, velt, tsushteyer ale mayne bafrayer. Nem tsu di Yezus-markses, verg zikh mit zeyer mut. Krapir iber a tropn undzer getoyft blut. Un ikh hob hofn az, khotsh er zamt zikh, geyt oyf tog-eyn-tog-oys mayn vartn.... ========== Good night, wide world, great stinking world. Not you, but I slam the gate. With the long gabardine, with the yellow patch -- burning -- with proud stride I decide ---: I am going back to the ghetto.Wipe out, stamp out all traces of apostacy. I wallow in your filth. Blessed, blessed, blessed, hunchbacked Jewish life. Go to hell with your polluted cultures, world. Though all is ravaged, I am dust of your dust, sad Jewish life. ... Good night. It's all yours, world. I disown my liberation. Take back your Jesusmarxists, choke on their arrogance. Croak on a drop of our baptized blood. And though He tarries, I have hope; day in, day out my expectation grows.... =========== Harvey Spiro 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 22:44 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Glatshteyn and Ozick It was a good number of years ago, and I'm having a little trouble recalling the precise event, but there may be some of you (Janet Hadda?) who can help. An award ceremony honoring Glatshteyn, (sponsored by the Bnai Brith, perhaps), at which Cynthia Ozick spoke. Her quite magnificent short story "Envy" had recently been published in Commentary, and the atmosphere was rather tense. As I recall, Cynthia Ozick had known and been a friend of Glatshteyn's for many years, and tearfully spoke of the misunderstanding caused by the publication of the story. The title which she had submitted to Commentary had simply been "Envy"; the editors alone were responsible for adding the offensive subtitle "or Yiddish in America". It had not been intended as a depiction of Glatshteyn/Bashevis. I'd value any help in sorting out the details of this event. Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 01:40:02 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: More on tifle An interesting curiosity: The residents of the small German town of Schlofloch (I'm not sure of the spelling) use a secret patois, a kind of rural jargon containing many Yiddish-Hebrew words. And the word that non-Jews use for church in this "language" is the Hebrew-Yiddish _tu'me_, which means impurity, sinfulness. Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.286 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu