Lin Jaldati - Lin Jaldati singt (Eterna, 1966)

Jewish Music in Post-War Germany, Part 2

Lin Jaldati: Communist First, Jewish Second

The first purveyors of Yiddish song in post-war Germany were Jews, but most of them did not actually speak Yiddish natively; they had acquired it some time later. From the very beginning, German interest in Judaism involved transforming real living assimilated Jews into a more exotic Eastern European variant.

Lin Jaldati, a Dutch Jew, was probably the most famous of these Yiddish students. Bron Rebekka Brilleslijper in 1921 in Amsterdam to a Sephardic family, Jaldati was taught Yiddish by a cantor shortly before the war. In 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz; as a Communist and aJew, she had two strikes agaisnt her. But she survived and rejoined the Communist Party soon after being freed. In 1952 she immigrated to East Germany, attracted by the opportunity to help the new socialist state. She took along her songs. In 1964 seh released her first album; by 1966, she had released her first book, a collection of Yiddish songs called Es brennt, Brüder, es brennt. In the introduction she wrote a short history of the Jews in Europe since the Middle Ages; she also noted their early involvement in Communist agitation.

Jaldati´s Jewish identification was secondary to her Communist affiliation, which would have appealed to German audiences who could congratulate themselves on their tolerance without having to feel threatend by someone who indentified above all as Jewish. Jaldati´s daughter, Jalda Rebling, explained that her mother "always said, that I´m Jewish is a fact: I´m not ashamed of it, and I´m also not particularly proud of it, that´s just the way it is".

Lin Jaldati was interned in Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen with Anne Frank and her familiy, and was actually the person who told Otto Frank that his daughters had died in the concentration camps. In the 1980s, Jaldati toured the world with a programme taht commemorated what would have been Frank´s 50th birthday.


Tracklist:

Ist das alles schon wieder vergessen
An meine Landsleute
Lied einer deutschen Mutter
Nichts oder alles
Die Ballade vom Wasserrad
Das Lied der Kupplerin
Song von den träumen
Spanisches Wiegenlied
Lied der Mausmutter
Auf Wiedersehn
Hej zigelech
Motele
Dort balm breg fun weldl
A jiddische mame
Berjoskele
Rabojssaj
Der balagole un sajn ferdl
Es brent
Amol is gewen a jidele
Jüdisches Partisanenlied

Voice: Lin Jaldati
Piano: Eberhard Rebling

Lin Jaldati - Lin Jaldati singt (Eterna, 1966)
(320 kbps, cover art included)