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JANKIEL HERSZKOWICZ POLAND
ŁÓDŹ
DRZEWKO NR 584
TREE NO.

Jankiel Herszkowicz is one of the best known figures of the Łódź ghetto. He
wrote simple satirical songs in Yiddish, which he sang in the streets of the
ghetto. They spoke of the poverty, hunger and cold, but at the same time
gave people hope and some joy. He survived the war and returned to Łódź.
Jankiel Herszkowicz came from Opatów. He was born in 1910. His family came
to Łódź not long before the war. He was a tailor by profession. He found him-
self in the ghetto with the whole family. He lived at 6 and 13, Rybna Street,
then at 1, Starosikawska Street, and finally, at 20, Berka Joselewicza Street.
In 1942, his parents and the youngest brother were deported to Chełmno on
the River Ner and murdered there. He got a job in a shop, then in a bakery,
and eventually he also worked in a print shop. In his free time, he composed
songs to well-known melodies and sang them in the streets. The whole ghetto
knew them and they really caught on. Some added their own verses, so the
Survivors remember different versions of these songs.
Jankiel wittily commented on the situation in the ghetto, criticized the high
officials, and even the Chief Elder of the Jews, Chaim Mordechaj Rumkowski.
The Chairman reportedly once put the singer into custody. In “The Chronicle
of the Lodz Ghetto”, however, there is information that he twice awarded him
for his talent. Herszkowicz was also the author of the hit song, Leben zol prezes
Chaim (Long Live President Chaim), which brought him fame in the ghetto.
From the end of 1941 onwards, the singer performed his songs in a duet with
Karol Rozencwajg, who accompanied him on the guitar or zither.
In 1944, Jankiel was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, then he went to other
camps, and the end of the war found him in Braunschweig. His skill in writing
funny lyrics to well-known melodies reportedly helped him survive the camp.
In 1945, Herszkowicz returned to Łódź, where he met his elder brother, Ma-
jer, who had survived the war in the USSR. Unfortunately, he died in 1946 as
a result of a serious illness. Jankiel participated in post-war Jewish life, but
his Yiddish-speaking audience diminished from year to year. In the early
1950s, he married Bogumiła Niewiadomska, a Pole, with whom he had two
sons: Jerzy and Aleksander. The boys went to the Perec Jewish school, where
they learned Yiddish, but gradually they departed from the Jewish tradition.
Jankiel Herszkowicz could not find his place in the post-war environment of
Poland. He was severely affected by the anti-Semitic campaign of March
1968 and the departure of his friends. He considered emigrating to Den-
mark, but his wife did not want to leave the country. He committed suicide
in 1972. Despite that, his songs are still alive today. Jankiel’s son, Aleksander
Herszkowicz, became involved in the work of the Jewish Community of Łódź
in the 1990s. He died suddenly in 2006. His daughter Łucja, Jankiel’s grand-

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