Hirsh Glick (1922 – 1944) was a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

poet and

partisan Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Ital ...

Life

Glick was born in

Wilno Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

in 1922 (at the time a part of

interwar Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I. ...

). He began to write

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

poetry in his teens and became co-founder of '' Yungvald'' (Young Forest), a group of young Jewish poets. After the German assault on the Soviet Union in 1941, Hirsh Glick was imprisoned in the Weiße Wache

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

and later transferred to the

Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered . During the approximately two years of its existen ...

. Glick involved himself in the ghetto's artistic community while simultaneously participating in the underground and took part in the 1942 ghetto uprising. In 1943 he wrote his most famous work, the song '' Zog nit keynmol, az du geyst dem letstn veg'' (זאג ניט קיינמאל, אז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג) to the music of

Dmitry Pokrass Dmitry Yakovlevich Pokrass (; 7 November 1899, Kyiv – 20 December 1978, Moscow) was a Soviet composer, conductor and pianist. He composed popular music and scores for theatre and films, including in collaboration with his brothers. In 1975 ...

(1899-1978), which became the anthem of the Jewish partisan movement, and '' Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt''. He was inspired to write this work by news that arrived of the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the ...

. Glick managed to flee when the Vilna Ghetto was being liquidated in October 1943, but got captured. Later he was deported to a

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. During his captivity he continued to compose songs and poems. In July 1944, with the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

approaching, Glick escaped. He was never heard from again, and was presumed captured and executed by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

(reportedly in August 1944).

Sources

*Gutman, Israel, ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust''. MacMillan Reference Books, 1995.

References

External links

* Free song lyrics in Yiddish and sheet music by Hirsh Glick http://ulrich-greve.eu/free/others.html 1922 births 1944 deaths Jewish writers from Vilnius Lithuanian Jews Jewish partisans Jewish poets Yiddish-language poets Vilna Ghetto inmates World War II poets Lithuanian people executed by Nazi Germany Escapees from German detention {{Poet-stub