« Day By Day | Main | Saying "good-bye" to Pres. Bartlett »
May 13, 2006
Am Yisroel Chai!
On April 15, 1945, the British Royal Artillery 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment liberated Bergen-Belsen, the first major concentration camp to be captured by the Allies.
While not a death camp like Auschwitz, more than 35,000 Jews died in Bergen-Belsen, the victims of starvation, disease, sadistic medical experiments and being worked to death. Among the dead were Anne Frank and her sister, Margot; they died less than a month before the Brits arrived.
Conditions in the camp were appalling. More than 60,000 inmates were present on April 15; 500 inmates died every day after the British sent the Nazis packing -- more than 14,000 dying after their liberation.
A recording was discovered of the newly-freed inmates singing "Hatikvah" -- the Zionist anthem, which would become the Israeli National Anthem -- on April 20, 1945, at the first Shabbat service by free Jews in Germany since before the war.
It is perhaps the most moving thing I've ever heard.
The first five lines the survivors sing are:
As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward toward the East,
An eye still watches toward Zion --
Our hope has not yet been lost
You can listen to it here, or download a copy of it on this page.
A transcript of the recording is below.
This is London Calling North America.The day I reached the Belsen concentration camp, the fifth day of liberation, was a Friday, the day before the Jewish Sabbath.
Something like half the surviving prisoners at Belsen were Jews, and the Jewish chaplain to the British Second Army, the Reverend L.H. Hartman, held an eve of the Sabbath service in the open air, in the midst of the camp. It was the first Jewish service that many of the men and women present had taken part in for six years. It was probably the first Jewish service held on German soil, in absolute security and without fear, for a decade.
Around us lay the corpses that there had not been time to clear away even after five days– 40,000 or more had been cleared, but there was still one or two thousand around. People were still lying down and dying, in broad daylight, in front of our eyes. This was the background to this open air Jewish service. During the service, the few hundred people gathered together were sobbing openly with joy of their liberation and with sorrow at the memory of their parents - and brother - and sisters, that had been taken from them and gassed and burned
These people knew they were being recorded. They wanted the world to hear their voice. They made a tremendous effort, which quite exhausted them. Listen…
Singing Ha Tikvah.
Am Yisroel Chai! The children of Israel still liveth.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 13, 2006 10:19 AM
| TrackBack