Uwe von Seltmann

If history had taken a different course and millions of Jews and their culture had not been exterminated, the Yiddish poet Mordechai Gebirtig would be as popular today as the Gershwin brothers.
The “father of the Yiddish song” was murdered by the Nazis in the Krakow ghetto in 1942. But about 170 of his poems and songs have survived the Shoah. They are an important testimony of Jewish-European culture and are sung and interpreted by renowned artists worldwide. Gebirtig’s most famous song S’brent (“Es brennt”) was the unofficial anthem of Jewish resistance fighters during the Nazi era.

The publicist, documentary filmmaker and author Uwe von Seltmann has written several books, which deal primarily with the family, social and political effects of the Nazi era on the present, e.g. the standard work Schweigen die Täter, reden die Enkel (2004). He is director and co-producer of the Yiddish documentary Boris Dorfman – A mentsh (2014).