Mordechaj Gebirtig (1877-1942)

Biography

Yiddish Mordche Bertig,
German Markus Bertig;

Born May 4, 1877 in Krakow,
murdered in the Krakow ghetto on June 4, 1942,

is still one of the most important Jewish-Polish poets and composers.

During the First World War, he was drafted into military service and worked as a medic in the hospital guard. After the war, he worked as a merchant for his brother Leon, a furniture dealer.

He achieved his first national fame in 1920 when he published a collection of 20 poems with annotations under the title Folkstimlech (Yiddish: Folk). This work was very popular in Poland.

In 1938, in the face of an anti-Jewish pogrom in Przytyk, he wrote what is probably his most famous work: the song ss’brennt [It burns]. It also became known under the title undser schtetl brent [Our shtetl is burning], which became the unofficial anthem of Jewish partisans during the National Socialist reign of terror.

In the spring of 1942, Gebirtig and his entire family were deported to the Krakow ghetto, where he lived at 5 Janowa Wola Street.

On June 4, 1942, Mordechai Gebirtig was to be taken to the Krakow train station and deported from there to the Bełżec extermination camp. On the way to the station, he was murdered by German soldiers together with his wife and two daughters.

In 1946, the anthology of the “Jewish Historical Commission Krakow”, stored here, was published, summarizing Gebirtig’s work from 1938-1942 as an impressive picture of Jewish history.

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