Object numberM2010/001:030
DescriptionThis is a song sung by Jewish youth in the forests of Lithuania in 1944. In Yiddish, typed with Latin letters. No author is indicated.
Jadwiga Sapera was born Hermina Silberfeld, to Polish Jews Nathan Silberfeld and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a convent, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was helpful for her survival. In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, moved to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, until liberation. After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Jadwiga Sapera was born Hermina Silberfeld, to Polish Jews Nathan Silberfeld and Anna (nee Hollander) on 27 November 1914 in Miskolc, Hungary. In 1918, the family returned to their home in Stary Sacz, Poland. Hermina attended a convent, which gave her a knowledge of German and Catholicism that was helpful for her survival. In 1942, Hermina attained false identification papers of a Polish-Catholic woman, Jadwiga Eleonora Jarzemiszewska. As Jadwiga she was able to find new accommodation and work, and at the end of 1942, moved to Krakow to better safeguard her secret. In 1943 she moved to Warsaw and then to Budapest, until liberation. After the war she kept the name Jadwiga and got work in Bucharest typing the testimonies of concentration camp survivors for the Association of Polish Jewish Refugees. She found out her father had died of hunger and disease, but her mother and brother survived. She was reunited with them in Poland. She lived in Katowice with her husband Jan Sapera who she met and married in 1946. They immigrated to Australia in 1958 with their three children. In the last decade of her life she re-adopted her Jewish name Hermina.
Production date 1945
Object namesongs
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 150.00 mm
height: 210.00 mm
Language
- Yiddish “One, two, three”
A march: A song sung by Jewish youth in the forests of Lithuania in 1944
Life had called us
Life of sun filled days
Everyone cheerfully traversed the land
Everyone went their own way
One two three
On a journey to work they set off
Each step has its own sound
Each road has its song
When you walk you know where to and for what.
For us the pavements are forbidden
For others the roads are still free
And look at that stony bridge
Across which you pulled yourself whilst being beaten with a whip
One two three
And only on the bridge we were allowed
Through a different song
Each step has its sound
When you walk, what you are called, what you are going for?
We had hundreds of generations,
They build their lives, they hoped.
Until he with his sword
Wiped every one off this earth
And us he led like sheep
One two three
Like sheep we allowed ourselves to be led,
Did your wife and your child,
And your entire family
Ask you, where to and for what?
Brothers, a different rhythm,
Will directly reach your ear,
And those who today still lay hidden in fear
Will walk together with us and not alone
One two three,
The gate and small streets we left
The steps of the old and the young will ring out
And will know for what reason and where to go.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs Jadwiga Sapera