Kalt: A lidl fin Łódzer getto 1945
Miriam Harel composed this song and sang it to her family in the ghetto. Her songs express her feelings throughout the four years of her internment.
This song, as well as her earlier Yiddish song, 'Vinter 1942' (Winter 1942) speak of the winter, of cold and darkness outside and inside the ghetto. This song, however, has some hope in it and also calls for vengeance. It refers to her entire period in Łódź and its subtitle is 'A lidl fin Łódźer geto, 1945' (A song from the Łódź ghetto, 1945). It was composed in retrospect, after her deportation to Italy in 1945.
Miriam recalls that the inspiration for the first verse and refrain came from a song her mother used to sing. Miriam adapted the original song, composing two additional verses. The earlier song was a Yiddish lullaby 'Vigndik a krank kind' (Soothing a sick child). Miriam used the song’s mood to express the extremes in her life: though young, she suffered, experienced the loss of family and friends and wished that things could be different. She wanted to comfort herself, and was longing for normality, and so she says, 'Because it had a sweet melody, I decided to write it.'
The song speaks of her despair and loneliness. She describes the cold winter which will end soon, and the time ahead, which she hopes will be a time of both freedom and vengeance.