Children on the Train

A lullaby melody carried out of the Lodz ghetto, sung now in Russian so the children are not forgotten.

"Children on the Train" (Едут дети) belongs to the Songs of the Holocaust cycle. According to the song's history, it was written in the Lodz ghetto in Poland after the mass deportation of September 1942, when nearly all of the ghetto's children, along with the elderly and the sick, were taken away. Most were sent to the Chelmno death camp.

The words are attributed to Miriam Harel, who set her verses to a Polish folk melody, an everyday children's tune known before the war. The original is remembered for its painful contrast: a bright, familiar melody set against a text in which the sun looks into the children's faces but is indifferent to them. The song is said to have been sung quietly, in a small circle. After the war Harel reached Israel, and according to the history she performed it for the researcher Gila Flam in 1985, which is how it was preserved.

The Russian text heard in this recording is a poetic interpretation rather than a literal translation, intended to carry the meaning of the original into Russian.

Elechka sings it here as part of a project bringing these Jewish songs into Russian for listeners who do not know the originals. The English film JEWISH grew out of these Russian recordings. This song is offered with restraint, as a small act of remembrance.

Lyrics, line by line

The full Russian text of the recording, with a plain English translation under each line.

Едут дети свет струится

Children are riding, light streams

В пыльное окно

Into the dusty window

Солнце детям смотрит в лица

The sun looks into the children's faces

Солнцу всё равно

The sun does not care

Солнце всходит на востоке

The sun rises in the east

Провода гудят

The wires hum

Едут едут по дороге

They ride, they ride along the road

И сестра и брат

Both sister and brother

Может это всё ошибка

Maybe all of this is a mistake

Небу вопреки

Against the will of the sky

Эти жёлтые нашивки

These yellow patches

Эти башмаки

These shoes

Вой сигнала над платформой

The howl of a signal over the platform

Резок и уныл

Is sharp and dismal

И качнулся ящик чёрный

And the black box swayed

И поплыл поплыл

And it floated away, floated away

По дороге едут дети

Along the road the children are riding

Знать бы мне куда

If only I knew where to

Но в туманном жёлтом свете

But in the hazy yellow light

Тают поезда

The trains melt away

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What listeners say

Real comments left under the recording on YouTube, translated into English, with the original Russian beneath each one.

It's impossible to breathe.

❤️Невозможно дышать.....💔

@Fanyp2903
Thank you so much. Very sad. But this must be remembered forever, so that it never happens again.

Спасибо огромное очень печально Но Это надо помнить Вечно что бы больше не повторялось

@АнатолийРанецкий-ч8о
This song reminded me of the war of 1941 to 1945. The yellow patches. I am a lawyer and I know my country's history well, and so I will not forget the horror I saw with my own eyes back around 1985, when my colleagues and I came to Lithuania for the weekend and were taken on a tour of the camp at Salaspils. To this day I remember that horror. It was inhuman, to treat the imprisoned Jewish people that way.

,,,😥 Эта песня НАПОМНИЛА мне о войне 1941-1945.. Жёлтые нашивки..😥 Я юрист. Неплохо знаю историю Родины. И поэтому НЕ ЗАБУДУ тот ужас, к-рый видела своими глазами аж ~в 1985 году.. Когда мы с сотрудниками приехали на выходные в Литву. И нас повели на экскурсию в фашистский лагерь Саласпилс..😱😩... До сих пор ПОМНЮ ТОТ УЖАС! ЭТО БЕСЧЕЛОВЕЧНО!!! ТАК издеваться над заключёнными евреями - народом Божьим!😥😩

@НадеждаКовалёва-ф7ц
A beautiful song, Elya.

Красивая песня, Эля

@ivarzmay3749

This recording has fewer published listener comments; the ones above are what we found that fit.