This exhibition is a production of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center with assistance from the curatorial and photographic archives departments of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
All photos are courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum unless otherwise noted. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park.
This exhibition is generously supported by Harvey L. Miller and Jack Miller in loving memory of their parents, Ida and Ben Miller, and their brother Arnold Miller.
Last Letter (Edited) Audiovisual Presentation
Film Production: Martin Baumgaertner, Angle Park, Inc.
Yiddish Translator: Khane-Faygl Turtletaub
Voiceover and Yiddish Handwriting: Cantor Benjamin A. Tisser
English Handwriting: Michael Miller
Music: Jeremy Jacobsen
Song: Zog nit keyn mol (Never Say, also known as the Partisans’ Hymn)
Lyrics:
Never say that you are walking the final road,
Though leaden skies obscure blue days;
The hour we have been longing for will still come,
Our steps will drum – we are here!
From green palm-land to distant land of snow,
We arrive with our pain, with our sorrow,
And where a spurt of our blood has fallen,
There will sprout our strength, our courage.
The morning sun will tinge our today with gold,
And yesterday will vanish with the enemy,
But if the sun and the dawn are delayed –
Like a watchword this song will go from generation to generation.
This song is written with blood and not with lead,
It’s not a song about a bird that is free,
A people, between falling walls,
Sang this song with pistols in their hands.
So never say that you are walking the final road
Though leaden skies obscure blue days.
The hour we have been longing for will still come –
Our steps will drum – we are here!