"Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt"[1] (Quiet, the Night is Full of Stars)[2] or "Partisaner lid" (Partisan Song)[3] is a Yiddish song written in summer 1942 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inmate of the Vilna Ghetto.[4] It is set to a Russian folk melody.[3] It is a love song that starts with conventional lyrics about a quiet night and sky full of stars, but quickly turns to the realities of war.[5] The song is addressed to a beautiful woman who succeeded in ambushing a Nazi convoy.[5] The song celebrates Vitka Kempner, a Jewish partisan, and her successful attack, an act of sabotage, on a German train in the Vilnius sector.[1] It was the first attack by the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO), organization of Jewish partisans from the Vilna Ghetto.[3] Kempner and Itzik Matskevich threw a hand grenade at the convoy damaging it.[3] The snow and frost mentioned in the lyrics are poetic liberties as the attack occurred in summer 1942.[4] The song is noted for its celebration of a woman partisan – active fighting and resistance were not traditional roles for a woman, even during the war.[1][6] Ruth Rubin also noted the use of three words – shpayer (local word from Vilnius), nagan (Russian term referring to Nagant M1895), pistoyl (German term) – to denote an automatic pistol. Perhaps this was meant to show multiculturalism of the region.[7]
See also[]
- "Zog nit keynmol", another song by Glick
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Silverman, Jerry (2001). The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-815-60708-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=LWZni-dTJcsC&pg=PA96.
- ↑ Gilbert, Shirli (2005). Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps. Clarendon Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780199277971. https://books.google.com/books?id=iqEVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Partisaner Lid – Partisan Song". Heartstrings: Music of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem. http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/music/vilna_partisans_partizaner_lid.asp. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Teichman, Milton (1994). Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust. University of Illinois Press. p. 248. ISBN 9780252063350. https://books.google.com/books?id=rZ6NO84ytJEC&pg=PA248.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Abley, Mark (2004). Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages. Vintage Canada (Random House of Canada). p. 215. ISBN 9780307368232. https://books.google.com/books?id=oyyyybR6RmwC&pg=PT290.
- ↑ Frühauf, Tina; Hirsch, Lily E. (2014). Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Postwar German Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780199367481. https://books.google.com/books?id=Jfs_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA104.
- ↑ Rubin, Ruth (1979). Voices of a People: The Story of Yiddish Folksong. University of Illinois Press. p. 460. ISBN 9780252069185. https://books.google.com/books?id=gWJiUNy-jeUC&pg=PA460.
External links[]
The original article can be found at Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt and the edit history here.