Holocaust children - Oifen Pripitchik   
                                                                              Music, Lyrics Mark Markovich Warshavsky (1848 -1907) 
                                                                              Performed by M-Generation (Brooklyn, US) 

    Mark Markovich Warshavsky (Russian: Марк Маркович Варшавский; was born in Odessa 1848, died in Kiev, 1907) was a Yiddish-speaking folk poet and composer from the Russian Empire. In 1890,Warchawsky met with Sholem Aleichem when He was 42 years old. After listening to his songs, Sholom Aleichem was amazed. He said to him "Why do you not  print such songs? If I would not know that you wrote and composed those songs, I would swear that I heard them from my mother!"
  In 1900, In Kiev Warshavsky, with  Aleichem's full cooperation, published his first collection "Jewish People's songs".
 Mark Markovich included in this collection the best of his songs such as "Der Alef-Beis" and "A Brif fun Amerike". 
 In these songs he described the Jewish life in the Russian Empire. 
 The lyrics in "Der Alef-Beis" song are very hearty and are about a rabbi teaching his young students the Jewish alphabet that starts with alef and bet.  One of the phrases in this song is as follows:
 
"When you grow older,  children,
 You will understand by yourselves,
How many tears lie in these  letters?" 
As the poet is saying that the Jewish history has been built on  tears.   

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Yiddish
Oyfn pripetshik brent a fayerl,
Un in shtub
iz heys,
Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh,
Dem alef-beys.

 Refrain:
Zet zhe kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,
Vos ir lernt do;
Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a  mol:
Komets-alef: o!
Lernt, kinder, mit groys kheyshek,
Azoy zog ikh  aykh on;
Ver s'vet gikher fun aykh kenen ivre -
Der bakumt a  fon.
Lernt, kinder, hot nit moyre,
Yeder onheyb iz shver;
Gliklekh der  vos hot gelernt toyre,
Tsi darf der mentsh nokh mer?
Ir vet, kinder, elter  vern,
Vet ir aleyn farshteyn,
Vifl in di oysyes lign trern,
Un vi fil  geveyn.
Az ir vet, kinder, dem goles shlepn,
Oysgemutshet zayn,
Zolt ir  fun di oysyes koyekh shepn,
Kukt in zey arayn!

English
On the hearth, a fire burns,
And in the house  it is warm.
And the rabbi is teaching little children,
The  alphabet.
 
Refrain:
See, children, remember, dear ones,
What  you learn here;
Repeat and repeat yet again,
"Komets-alef: o!"
Learn,  children, with great enthusiasm.
So I instruct you;
He among you who
learns Hebrew pronunciation faster -
He will receive a flag.
Learn  children, don't be afraid,
Every beginning is hard;
Lucky is the one has  learned Torah,
What more does a person need?
When you grow older,  children,
You will understand by yourselves,
How many tears lie in these  letters,
And how much lament.
When you, children, will bear the  Exile,
And will be exhausted,
May you derive strength from these  letters,
Look in at them!