Letter: Sing About the Partisans
The song written during World War II by Hirsh Glick should be part of every Yom HaShoah ceremony.
An essential part of what should be commemorated on Yom HaShoah is the extraordinary courage and dignity shown by Jews living in hopeless conditions in terrifying times. Zog Nit Keynmol (“Song of the Partisans”) should be part of any commemorative program, along with a few words about poet Hirsh Glick.
While imprisoned in the Vilna Ghetto, Glick was inspired to write these strong, deeply moving lyrics when he heard about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Glick escaped the Vilna Ghetto when it was liquidated in October 1943, but he was recaptured and sent to a concentration camp in Estonia, from which he escaped in 1944.
He was 22 years old, and he was never heard from again.
— Julia Lutch, Davis, Calif.
(Editor’s note: Informed that Glick’s song is performed in a combination of Yiddish and English each year at Atlanta’s community Yom HaShoah commemoration at the Memorial to the Six Million, Julia Lutch wrote back, “You get it right in Atlanta.”)
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