Yid. שעברעשין, Rus. Щебрешин
What is the name of this place?—He thundered.
The old man started to mumble. The commander screamed: Speak up! Speak up! And when the old man still didn’t stop mumbling, he was struck in the face, and a tooth was knocked out. The old Jew bent down to pick up his tooth and sadly said in Hebrew, Sheber-shin. Broken tooth: Sheber-Shin.
Oh, that’s better!—said the commander, as he dutifully marked his primitive map. And so Shebreshin become the official name of this tiny shtetl—at least for Jews all over the world.