In the Free Forests for oboe and piano (2021) incorporates Shmerke Kaczerginski’s partisan song Yid, du partizaner (Jew, You Partisan). The title is taken from the song’s lyrics.

Shmerke Kaczerginski (1908–1954) was active as an archivist, poet, and youth leader in the Vilna ghetto. After fleeing with other Jewish partisans just before the 1943 Nazi liquidation of the ghetto, he eventually joined a Soviet partisan unit in the LithuanianBelorussian forests. For his fellow Jews in that unit, he created Yid, du partizaner by writing emboldening Yiddish lyrics to a Russian song he likely encountered in the forests.

In choosing Kaczerginski’s song as an historical source, I wanted to honor his work and help listeners become familiar with his life and contribution. He and the other partisans fought Nazi genocide and persecution, and their actions and songs illustrate courage, resistance, and survival amidst the tragedy of the Holocaust.

In the Free Forests, originally the first movement of my Sonata for Cello and Piano–Mir zaynen do!, was arranged for the concert associated with the exhibit Words, Music, Memories: (Re)presenting Voices of the Holocaust.

Laurence Sherr
https://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~lsherr/

Yid, du partizaner lyrics
https://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~lsherr/L...

Words, Music, Memories
https://www.kennesaw.edu/marb/museum...