Tibor Spitz — Kelleigh McKenzie

Tibor Spitz — “All is Changing, We are Witness, We are Life”

In the winter of 2018/2019, I had the honor and privilege of getting to know the joyful, spirited Tibor Spitz. At each visit, he would greet me with the most jubilant bear hug you can imagine, and then launch right into his life story and philosophy. A child when the Nazis invaded his native Slovakia, he survived the Holocaust and the Soviet takeover that followed, married his dear companion Noemi (also a survivor), and then courageously defected to Canada, finally settling in Kingston, NY. An engineer, inventor, and—later in life—a visual artist, he has spent recent years lecturing on the Holocaust, sharing his wisdom and life story with younger generations.

Distilling Tibor’s life and message into song was a tremendous challenge. Its depth and scope were overwhelming at first, and I did not know if we were going to get there. But little by little the song took shape, with Tibor’s enduring, celebratory love of life leading the way.

Tibor’s song was part of the project, “Honoring Holocaust Survivors: A Concert of Resilience and Hope,” featuring eight Holocaust survivors in New York’s Hudson Valley. A collaboration between SageArts and Jewish Family Service of Orange County, the concert (and the work leading up to it) is featured in the documentary film “We Remember: Songs of Survivors,” airing nationally on PBS in 2022.

© Kelleigh McKenzie with Tibor Spitz
A yellow star stitched on tight
Strong boy catching trout by hand at night
Kicked out of school, unwanted Slovak Jew
Questions piling up, whispers of Auschwitz and lies
When the trains come, to the rooftops we run
See the clinging and confusion in the lines
Into the forest we disappear like mist
All is changing, we are witness, we are life
200 days hiding in a hole in the ground
Pressed against my family, make no sound
I hear a voice from within reveal my choice
Let go the hatred and a way will be found
Stripped and robbed by theives, left to starve and freeze
We would die beneath the bitter mountain ice
Then like my warm tears mineral springs appear
All is changing, we are witness, we are life
Free, finally free, the Germans leave but we see no justice
Relatives vanished in flame and smoke
Neighbors return to their day-to-day
As if nothing happened
An appetite for learning, study hard and my world opens wide
Then Soviets take control and shape my life
A fearless engineer, I transform glass, invent, make clear
Turn mystery into knowledge in the way of my tribe
Around the world they send me with my love Noemi
Fixing factories while our every move they spy
Like a pair of wild horses we defect to the West
All is changing, we are witness, we are life
Free, finallly free, but childhood memories choke and sting
I find the easel like a sign from god
It’s time, release in sparks of color
The brooding in the brow, the pleading in the hand
The terror in the open mouth
You asked me not to be angry, to forget, to forgive
Would you at least let me sometimes be sad
89 years through these eyes
Recognize illusions, perceive all sides
These things I share, to young and old my prayer
Is always remember, and beware the creed that divides
In every moment the way is chosen
To be human is to be both shadow and light
And to choose love, the true lifeblood
All is changing, we are witness, we are life