KASRIEL BROYDO

KASRIEL BROYDO (1907-January 1945)

     He was born in Vilna and graduated from a Hebrew middle school.  He acted in Yiddish theater with various troupes, as well as in amateur circles and the puppet theater of Maidim.  He wrote theatrical pieces which were major successes with audiences.  During the Nazi occupation, he was in the Vilna ghetto, where he staged such revue programs as: Korene yorn un vey tsu di teg (Years of corn and days of sorrow), Men ken gornit visn (You can never know), and Moyshe halt zikh (Moyshe, hold on).  He authored songs that were sung in virtually all ghettos and camps: “Geto, dikh fargesn vel ikh kayn mol nit” (Ghetto, I shall never forget you), “Eng, undzer tsimer iz eng” (Crowded, our room is crowded), “Ikh bin fun transport” (I’m from the transport), “Froyen, geboyrene in shvere shoen” (Women, born in difficult times), “Nor bay undz in gro un fintster” (Only grey and dark for us), and “Mir shpanen tsum besern morgn” (We are striding to a better tomorrow).  While he was at work on the revue “Moyshe halt zikh,” the Gestapo took him to camps in Estonia and murdered him there—this was in January 1945.

Sources: L. Finkelshteyn, Pidyen hashem (God’s redemption) (Toronto, 1948); Sh. Katsherkinski, Dos gezang fun vilner geto (The song of the Vilna ghetto) (Paris, 1947); Katsherginski, Lider fun getos and lagern (Songs of the ghettos and camps) (New York: Tsiko, 1948); Dr. M. Dvorzhetski (Mark Dvorzetsky), Yerusholayim delite in kamf un umkum (The Jerusalem of Lithuania in struggle and death) (Paris, 1948); Moshe Prager, Min hametsar karati (Out of distress I called) (Jerusalem, 1954).