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1 In Occupied Poland אין צײ ט פֿון פֿאַרנומענעם פּױלן by Moyshe Aftergut, translation by Shifra Epstein In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (February 2017) For the online version of this article: [

2 אין צײ ט פֿון פֿאַרנומענעם פּױלן In Occupied Poland Moyshe Aftergut translated by Shifra Epstein Introduction: The following is a summary of the first pirem-shpil or Purim play written, produced and performed by Bobover Hasidim in the United States after the Second World War. The Bobover Hasidim, originally from Bobowa, Poland, are a community of Holocaust survivors, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The play was performed in the old Bobover besmedresh on the Upper West Side of New York City during Purim 5708 (1948). 1 The summary was written from memory in 1978 by Moyshe Aftergut, a retired diamond dealer, who wrote, directed and played the main role in the pirem-shpil. Aftergut continued to direct the annual Bobover pirem-shpiln for the next sixty-five years, up until Purim The idea to revive the tradition of the pirem-shpil in the United States was that of R. Shloyme Halberstam ( ), who was the Third Bobover Rebbe, the first in America; and a Holocaust survivor who lost his wife and two of his children during the war. Before Purim 1948, the Rebbe asked Moyshe Aftergut, then a student at the Bobover yeshiva, to write and perform a pirem-shpil so that the traditional Bobover pirem-shpil would not be forgotten. R. Halberstam had met Aftergut after the war in the Displaced Persons Camp in Bary, Italy, where he noticed his musical talents. R. Halberstam arranged a visa to the USA for Aftergut, where he became one of the first members of the Bobover community there. 2 The result was In tsayt fun farnumenem poyln. Performed just three years after the atrocities of the war and before an audience composed of survivors. 1 I would like to thank Dr. Chava Lapin, a board member of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, for her valuable assistance in the translation. 2 More on the Bobover Hasidim pirem-shpiln, see Shifra Epstein, The Bobover Hasidim Piremshpiyl: From Folk Drama for Purim to a Ritual of Transcending the Holocaust, in Janet S. Belkow-Shalin, ed., New World Hasidim: Ethnographic Studies of Hasidic Jews in America (New York: SUNY Press, 1994)

3 The first two scenes are set in a German occupied ghetto, while the final scene takes place after the American soldiers had liberated the camps. Actors even wore the striped uniforms which they brought with them to the USA after the war. As in the pirem-shpiln performed by the Bobover pre-world War II, in In tsayt fun farnumenem poyln all the players were amateurs and male. Moyshe Aftergut played the only woman in the play, Beyle Yakobowitch, whose son is taken away. Music, which was central to the performance of the pirem-shpiln in Eastern Europe, was also central to In Tsayt fun farnumenem poyln. The roles were mostly sung with musical accompaniment, and the music was mostly borrowed from older pirem-shpiln as well as from popular Yiddish songs and cantorial music, creating the appropriate ambiance. The music of one song, Mame, gib dayn brukhe tsu dayn kind ( Mother, Give a Blessing to Your Child ), best illustrates the role of music in creating the setting for the play. The song was written by an unknown composer and was sung by mothers in the ghettos during World War II as farewell songs to their children before they were taken away. 3 As the following reconstructed text shows, In tsayt fun farnumenem poyln is a psychodrama in which the Holocaust experience is reversed in the miraculous survival of Yankele. As in DP camps in Europe and even during the Holocaust itself, the story of Esther traditionally told at Purim and the purimspiel as a format served many survivor communities as a means for expressing and exploring their experiences of the Holocaust. In tsayt fun farnumenem poyln provided survivors with a stage to act out their emotions, anxieties, and beliefs connected to the Holocaust. By cheating death, the play inverted the Holocaust experience and provided a ritualistic channel to publically proclaim belief in God and His miracles during the Holocaust. According to eyewitnesses, In tsayt fun farnumenem poyln had a great impact on the audience and many viewers sobbed during the performance. The following year, aware that the play had such a strong emotional impact on the community, the Bobover Rebbe prohibited its performance and recommended a return to themes from the traditional pirem-shpiln that the Bobover performed before the war. In the past fifty-eight years since then, the Bobover have performed more than thirty pirem-shpiln in Bobover Yiddish, both on biblical and non-biblical themes. The majority of them are new, written in the United States. The following is a summary of In tsayt fun farnumenem Poyln, written from memory in 1978 by Moyshe Aftergut, who wrote, directed and also played the main role in the play. Moyshe Aftergut, a retired diamond dealer, continued to direct the annual Bobover pirem-shpiln for the next sixty-five years, up until Purim Moshe Aftergut, the director of the play, passed away on October 2 / 29 of Elul, This translation is dedicated to his memory. 3 The song was published in Eleonor Melotek and Malke Gottlieb, We are here: Songs of the Holocaust (New York, 1983 )

4 In Occupied Poland BS D (Besiyata Dishmaya) With the Help of Heaven Written and directed by Moyshe Aftergut ( May his Light Shine ) Performed on Purim 5708 Taking part in the play: Moyshe Aftergut, the mother Borekh Duvid Halberstam, Yankele, the son Yankev Kriger, an SS officer Moyshe Duvid Mandelboym, One of the American soldiers who helped liberate the camp Musical accompaniment: Yehoyshiye Twersky, Meyer Yankev Rosengarten [Scene One] A mother whose husband has already been taken away from her clings to her fifteen- or sixteen-year-old child, Yankele, caressing him, as if he were a small child who could not even walk yet. She tries to reassure him and herself that the monsters, the Nazi officers, will not carry him off to work. Muttering to herself, she remembers her home, her parents, her brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, and acquaintances. From time to time the mother gives a deep but soft sigh in order not, God forbid, to awaken the child. Recounting to herself names and episodes, she groans to herself, And now? Gone, empty, wasted... Someone s coming! Hearing the words Someone s coming, Yankele wakes up and asks her fearfully: "Who is coming, mother?" To which the mother Beyle replies, "Sleep, my child, no one is coming." However, the sad truth is that they hear the steps of the beasts boots. The beasts break into Yakobowitch's home, forcefully seize the mother, and ask: "Are you Beyle Yakobowitch? And this is your son? Your sentence is set." The soldiers throw her to the ground and try to take Yankele with them. A fight begins between the mother and the murderers, but to no avail. Yankele is gone. The mother, Beyle, left alone, lying on the floor. As if she had fallen into a trance, her thoughts half clouded over, she talks to herself. Only shuddering can be heard. Speaking so, with sighs and despair, unable to make peace with the sad truth, she begins to fantasize. In her thoughts, she casts total darkness over everything around her. [Scene Two] Several days later, a messenger from the devils appears, an SS officer with a sack in his hand. He asks her, "Is your name Beyle Yakobowitch?" 3

5 When she answers Yes he gives her the sack and says: "Here is your child..." Delighted to see her little child, she seizes the sack and presses it firmly to her heart, smiling and not able to take her eyes off her handsome radiant child who does not react to her tenderness and affection. She looks around; there is something wrong with her beautiful child... Then she sees the writing on the sack: "ashes." She opens her eyes wide and her body begins to tremble. She presses the sack once more to her heart, then throws herself on the ground, still holding it. She opens it, puts her hand inside, and slowly takes it out... ash! Her cry of "These are the ashes of my Yankele, my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters," causes the world to tremble and the skies to tear apart. Beyle raises herself up, hitting and smashing everything that happens to pass before her eyes. She strikes a match, runs outside, and races from house to house, setting houses and trees on fire and screaming at the bandits: "If you can turn my Yankele into ash, then I can set fire to everything that can be burned, and let it burn! I have only one request: transport me with my child in the same small sack of ashes... " [Scene 3] We hear the American national anthem. The American liberation has begun. The city is full of American soldiers; some of them are giving Beyle first aid. A knock is heard at the door, and Yankele, her son, rushes in. Beyle, emaciated and broken in spirit, is dumbstruck. "Is this a vision from the Valley of Death?" she asks herself. It takes some minutes before her failing eyes start to shine with motherly love. It turns out that Yankele had managed to escape from the transport to the forest, where some partisans found him and brought him to their camp. Yankele embraces his mother and kisses her. They cry together about the miracle that took place. Coming to himself, Yankele says, "Mother! Just as strong currents throw themselves at little islands but cannot dislodge them, so Yankele will never be forced apart from his mother. 4

6 אין צײ ט פֿון פֿאַרנומענעם פּױלן דער אָריגינעלער יי דישער טעקסט, מיט אַ שורה צווישן פּאַראַגראַפֿן. בס ד אין צײ ט פֿון פֿאַרנומענעם פּױלן אױפֿגעפֿירט פֿון ר משה אַפֿטערגוט נ י געשפּילט: פּורים תּש ח לפּ ק אין דער שפּיל האָבן אָנטײל גענומען: משה אַפֿטערגוט די מאַמע ברוך דוד האַלבערשטאַם איר קינד יעקבֿ קריגער דער ס ס מאַן משה דוד מאַנדלבױם אײנער פֿון די אַמעריקאַנער סאָלדאַטן, װעלכע האָבן באַפֿרײ ט דעם לאַגער די מוזיק באַגלייטערס יהושע טװערסקי, מאיר יעקבֿ ראָזנגאָרטן אַ מאַמע, פֿון װעלכער מען האָט צוגענומען איר מאַן, טוליעט איר קינד און פּיעשטשעט אים, מאַכנדיק פֿון דעם פֿופֿצן אָדער זעכצן יאָריקן בחורל אַ קלײן פּיצל קינד, װעלכעס קען נאָך אַפֿילו קױם גײן אויף די פֿיס, כּדי אַזױ אײ נרײדנדיק אים און זיך װעלן די בעסטיעס, די נאַצישע רוצחים, אים נישט נעמען צו דער אַרבעט רעדנדיק װי צו זיך, דערמאָנענדיק זיך די הײם, די עלטערן, די געשװיסטער, קרובֿים, פֿרײ נד און באַקאַנטע, האָט די מאַמע פֿון צײ ט צו צײ ט געגעבן אַ טיפֿן אָבער שטילן זיפֿץ, זי זאָל חלילה נישט אױפֿװעקן איר קינד, יענקעלע. אַרױסרעדנדיק נעמען און עפּיזאָדן, האָט זי צװישן אַנדערן אַ ברום געטאָן: און יעצט? פּוסט, לער, װיסט מ גײט! הערנדיק דאָס װאָרט מ גײט, כאַפּט זיך יענקעלע אױף, און אַ דערשראָקענער פֿרעגט ער: װער גײט, מאַמע? זײ ן מאַמע, בײלע, ענטפֿערט: שלאָף, שלאָף, מײ ן קינד. קײנער גײט נישט. אָבער דער טרױעריקער אמת איז, אַז עס האָט זיך דערהערט דער טראָט פֿון די בעסטיעס שטיװל. די חיות האָבן אײ נגעבראָכן אין יאַקאָבאָװיטשעס הײם, זײ האָבן אַכזריותדיק אַ כאַפּ געגעבן די מוטער, און געפֿרעגט: הײסטו בײלע יאַקאָבאָװיטש? און דאָס איז דײ ן קינד? דײ ן אורטײל איז געחתמעט די רשעים שלײ דערן צום באָדן די מאַמען, און װילן אַװעקנעמען יענקעלען, איר קינד. דער קאַמף צװישן דער מאַמע און די מערדער הײבט זיך אָן אָבער עס האָט לײדער נישט געהאָלפֿן. יענקעלע איז אַװעק די מאַמע איז געבליבן אַלײן, ליגנדיק אױף דעם פֿוסבאָדן װי זי װאָלט אַרײ נגעפֿאַלן אין אַ טראַנס, האָט זי מיט האַלב פֿאַרנעפּלטע געדאַנקען װי צו זיך גערעדט. מ האָט נישט געהערט מער װי גרױל רעדנדיק אַזױ, מיט קרעכץ און יי אוש, און נישט קענענדיק שלום מאַכן מיט טרױעריקער װירקלעכקײט, האָט זי אָנגעהױבן צו פֿאַנטאַזירן זי האָט מיט אירע געדאַנקען אַרױפֿגעװאָרפֿן אַ חשכות אױף אַלץ אַרום 5

7 אין אַ פּאָר טעג אַרום קומט אַ שליח פֿון די טײ װלאָנים, אַן ס ס מאַן, מיט אַ זאַק אין דער האַנט. דער שליח האָט זי געפֿרעגט: הײסטו בײלע יאַקאָבאָװיטש? אַזױ װי זי האָט געענטפֿערט יאָ, גיט ער דאָס זעקעלע און זאָגט: דאָס איז דײ ן קינד די מאַמע דערפֿרײט זיך מיט איר פּיצל קינד. זי טוליעט עס און דריקט עס פֿעסט צו איר האַרצן, שמײכלענדיק און נישט קענענדיק אַראָפּנעמען אַן אױג פֿון איר ליכטיק שײנעם זונעלע, װעלכער האָט איר גאָרנישט געענטפֿערט אױף איר צערטלעכקײט און װאַרעם האַרציקײט. די מאַמע קוקט זיך אַרום, און עס איז עפּעס נישט נאָרמאַל מיט איר שײן קינד פּלוצעם דערזעט זי די אױפֿשריפֿט אױפֿן זאַק: אַש! זי מאַכט אױף אַ פּאָר גרױסע אױגן און הײבט אָן ציטערן זי דריקט דאָס זעקל װידער צום האַרצן און אָט װאַרפֿט זי זיך מיטן זעקל, מאַכט עס אױף, לײגט אַרײ ן איר האַנט און נעמט אַרױס ביסלעכװײ ז אַש! אירע קולות בײ ם שרײ ען: דאָס איז דאָס אַש פֿון מײ ן יענקעלע, דאָס איז דאָס אַש פֿון מײ ן טאַטן, מאַמען, דאָס איז דאָס אַש פֿון מײ נע געשװיסטער! האָבן אָפּגעהילכט אַ װעלט און צעריסן הימלען. זי האָט זיך אױפֿגעהױבן קלאַפּנדיק און ברעכנדיק אַלץ, װאָס פֿאַר אירע אױגן איז געקומען, האָט געכאַפּט אַ שװעבעלע, אַרױסגעלאָפֿן פֿון שטוב און געשפּרונגען פֿון הױז צו הױז אָנצינדנדיק הײ זער און בײמער, און שרײ ענדיק צו די באַנדיטן: אױב איר האָט געמעגט מאַכן פֿון מײ ן יענקעלען אַש, האָב איך געמעגט אונטערצינדן װאָס נאָט אונטערצינדן לאָזט זיך, און זאָל ברענען װאָס נאָט ברענען קען! און יעצט האָב איך אײן בקשה: טראַנספּאָרטירט מיך מיט מײ ן קינד אין אײן זעקעלע אַש אין צװישן הערט זיך דער אַמעריקאַנער הימען. די באַפֿרײ ונג פֿון די אַמעריקאַנער איז געקומען. די שטאָט פֿילן אָן אַמעריקאַנער סאָלדאַטן, געבנדיק ערשטע הילף דער אומגליקלעכער מאַמען. קלאַפּט פּלוצלונג אין דער טיר און קומט האַסטיק אַרײ ן איר זון יענקעלע!?! די גײ סטיק צעבראָכענע אױסגעדאַרטע מוטער איז געװעזן װי פֿאַרשטומט, ניט קענענדיק אױסרעדן אַ װאָרט צי איז עס ניט קײן חלום אין דעם גיא ההריגה? האָט זי געמוזט טראַכטן עס האָט געדױערט אַ שטיקל צײ ט ביז אירע האַלב אױסגעלאָשענע אױגן האָבן מוטערלעך אָנגעהױבן צו לױכטן עס האָט זיך אַרױסגעצײכנט (אַרױסגעװיזן), אַז יענקעלע איז אַנטלאָפֿן פֿון טראַנספּאָרט אין די װעלדער, װוּ אַ גרופּע פּאַרטיזאַנער האָט אים דערזען און גענומען צו זיך. יענקעלע האָט געהאַלדזט און געקושט זײ ן מאַמען. זײ האָבן בײדע געװײנט אױפֿן נס קומענדיק צו זיך, זאָגט יענקעלע: מאַמע! פּונקט אַזױ װי די רױשיקע שטראָמען װאַרפֿן זיך אױף די קלײנע אינדזעלעך און קענען זײ ניט אַװעקרײ סן, אַזױ װעט יענקעלען קײנער קײן מאָל ניט קענען אַװעקרײ סן פֿון זײ ן מאַמען 6

In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (December 2016)

Three poems from "Poems from my דרײ לידער פֿון לידער פֿון טאָגבוך Diary" by Abraham Sutzkever, translation by Maia Evrona In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies (December 2016) For the online version of this