Aktion Reinhard Songs - A Storm Raged

Frieda Radasky learned this song while working in the kitchen at a coal depot in the Praga district of Warsaw (outside the ghetto area) in 1943. The kitchen workers, all young women, witnessed many deportations. The song was written over a period of time. Each worker contributed to the lyrics. The Umschlagplatz was the area where Jews were rounded up for deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto.

“My name is Frieda Radasky. I was born in Warsaw, Poland, and survived the Nazi regime during World War II. When I was in the Warsaw Ghetto there was a folk song that described the terrible tragedy that was happened to Warsaw Jews. It described how families were taken to the Umschlagplatz amid terror and screams knowing that once they were transported to Treblinka they would never return.”

Es iz a shturm durkh di velt iz oyfgegangen,
Es hobn felker farvandelt on lender.
On rakhmones yoysherdik khurev gemakht a velt.
Di zin fun himl aruf gerisn, in fin tog gemakht nakht.
Dort nisht vayt, shteyt an umshlagplats shoyn grayt
Men shtift zikh dort in di brayt in di vogonen.
Dort hert men ayngeshray vi dos kind shrayt tsi der mame,
"Vi lozt du mikh aleyn? Di vest shoyn mer zu mir nisht kimen!"
Di politsay zay hobn gikh gehaysn -- "Gayn!"
"Ir vert nisht visn fink a noyt; ir vert mit kimen dray broyt!"
Un mit di dray kilo broyt hob azy nisht gevist,
Az zay geyen oyf dem toyt.
Treblinke dort;
Far yedn eynems gite ort.
Ver oysgeyt ahin dort,
Kim shoyn nisht mer tsurik.
Dos harts bavaynt ven men tit zikh nur dermonen,
A shvester brider zenen dortn umgekumen.
Ot shteyt der vogn!
Un dos aynz ken ikh aynsogn,
"Az fin Treblinke bin ikh!"


A storm raged throughout the world,
Leaving people up rooted and homeless.
Without pity or justice, a world was destroyed.
The sun was torn from the heavens, and day turned into night.
There, not far, the Umschlagplatz lies waiting.
People push and shove there for space in the railcars.
There, you hear the sound of a child crying to its mother,
"Why are you leaving? You'll never come back to me!"
The police shout the order -- "Go!"
"You won't feel a bit hungry; you'll get three loaves of bread!"
But with those three kilos of bread, they did not know,
That they were being driven to their deaths.
Treblinka lies ahead;
For everyone a nice resting place.
For whoever goes there,
Never comes back again.
The heart weeps when one recalls a sister or a brother,
Who were murdered there.
The train is waiting here!
And there's only one thing left to say,
"That I am for Treblinka!"

© United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Estate of Frieda Radasky; Translation by Toby Radasky Kornreich.