From Minsk, to Hollywood, to Buchenwald

How did we survive without the Internet?

Just a few years ago, we might have assumed that the antics of Borrah Minevitch and all his rascals were lost. Gone. Vanished.

We would have been very wrong.

Now, thanks to the mighty electron and the human need to hoard, we can watch them again ““ and they’re really pretty funny. Just google Borrah Minevitch or Harmonica Rascals and You Tube.

And when you watch, keep in mind a secret from Harry Feinberg. “Borrah, who was Jewish and born in Kiev, didn’t play the harmonica,” he said. “When he was onstage, we would all group at one microphone and he’d stand in front. He’d have harmonicas in his pocket, but he didn’t play. One of the guys would get behind us and he would do the playing, and people thought it was Borrah.

“Madison Avenue wrote him up as being the greatest harmonica player in the world, but he didn’t know anything about music.

“He got away with murder,” Mr. Feinberg said.