This song is a fictionalized abstraction of a piece of my family's history. In the early to mid 1900s there were many instances of violent attacks on Jewish communities in Europe, in countries such as Russia, Germany, Poland and Austria-Hungary. These violent and deadly acts were known as pogroms, which in Russian, pogrom, means "to wreak havoc, to demolish violently"
It was during one of these pogroms when my Great Grandfather and his brother fled Austria-Hungary with hopes of swimming across a river-border to Switzerland. My Great Grandfather luckily made it safely across. His brother, however was not as fortunate and drowned during the escape.
This song is based loosely on that occurrence and is very different than my usual song. I hope you enjoy.
Photo credit - US Holocaust Memorial Museum -
www.ushmm.org