Lyrics: Leyb Rosental
Melody: Popular Tango
The song is performed by Betty Segal, accompanied by Akiva Daykhes on the accordion.
The song was written by Leyb Rosental, who perished in 1945, for a review show of the Vilna Ghetto Theater entitled “Korene Yorn un Veytsene Teg” (Corn Years and Wheat Days), performed in 1943. The title is a play on the words “veytsene” – pronounced here as “vey tsu”– a cry of pain.
The song describes life in the ghetto as shadows, haunted by their destiny. The Jewish shadows – ghetto residents – live as corpses, as others continue their lives giving no thought to their pain and suffering. The lonely man – nobody listens to his cries. But one day in the future, “the shadows will disappear, and from the horrors you will see, soon, how the shadow passes and the sun shines a clear light.” The song ends in hope, as do many of the songs performed for the suffering population in the ghetto.
The sweet melody of the tango reinforces the contrast between the somber words and the song’s message, and joins them and us together – a disparity that appears in many songs from the Vilna ghetto. The tango was very popular in easy listening music in Eastern Europe and other places in the interwar years.