Hirsch Glick — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Hirsch Glick (1922 in Wilno, Poland – 1944 in Estonia) was a Jewish poet and partisan.

Glick was born in Wilno in 1922 (at the time a part of inter-war Poland). He began to write Yiddish poetry in his teens and became co-founder of Yungvald (Young Forest), a group of young Jewish poets. After the German assault on Soviet Union in 1941, Hirsh Glick was imprisoned in the Weiße Wache concentration camp and later transferred to the Vilna Ghetto. 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 the soviet composer Dmitry Pokrass (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. Glick managed to flee when the ghetto was being liquidated in October 1943, but was re-captured. He was later deported to a concentration camp in Estonia. During his captivity he continued to compose songs and poems. In July 1944, with the Soviet Army approaching, Glick escaped. He was never heard from again, and was presumed captured and executed by the Germans (reportedly in August 1944).

From: Wikipedia

Masha Greenbaum ,Hope at the Edge of the Abyss Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1999, pp. 98-103

One of the prisoners in the camp was Hirsh Glick, the Yiddish poet who composed the song of the partisans, Al na tomar hinei darki ha'aharona (Don't say this is my end). Hirsh was young, short and pale-faced with dreamy eyes. The people of Vilna were very proud of "their poet". He was a member of a group of writers known as "Young Vilna" who were the pillars of cultural activity in the ghetto. Their work was known all over the Jewish world and they frequently read them aloud at literary evenings that were held in Yiddish schools in Warsaw and other cities around Poland. Glick came to Narva with a group of friends from the Vilna Ghetto by himself. Diller, the Jewish supervisor of the camp, suggested to Glick that he work in the courtyard of the camp (which was a favored place): the work was easier than outside the camp. This made the group infamous. The other prisoners called them "voluntary lackeys of the Germans" – even though it was the Germans who chose the people to serve them.  In addition, people were envious of the special privileges they were granted.  However, Hirsh refused categorically to take advantage of the privileges extended to him, and preferred to work like all the other prisoners. There may have been other reasons for his desire to work outside the camp: before he came to the camp, he had tasted the life of the partisans and even in the camp he dreamt of setting up an underground escape route to the forest, to join those fighting the Germans.

Hirsh worked uncomplainingly and did not shirk the hard work of building roads and digging ditches and the like for the needs of the German army. He and his friends carried rocks and, along the way, he would recite his poems. With his peculiar sense of humor, he would compare the rest time of the forced labor workers to that of the Hebrew workman in Israel. He stressed the importance of remaining hopeful and courageous and not losing one's sense of humor, even in the darkest times.

A typhoid plague broke out in the camp and more and more people were brought to the hospital daily. It was actually a small clinic, ill-fitted to cope with all the sick people. Hirsh also fell ill and his friends brought him to the clinic.  Great efforts were made to save him; they brought him nourishing food and he indeed recovered. The Germans forbade the workers to go out to work because of the plague. Nobody came and nobody left. The crematorium, where they took the dead and nearly-dead, operated incessantly. The Germans checked the workers thoroughly and anybody who was ill or weak was transferred to a special isolation wing of the camp. In order to prevent the spread of the plague and also to ensure that they did not get it, the Germans ordered the workers to disinfect the sleeping quarters. As a result, the workers had to sleep on damp, smelly planks for months. The Germans also used steam to disinfect the workers' clothes to destroy the lice; while the clothes were being disinfected, the prisoners had to walk around naked in the freezing cold. Not only was the mortality rate very high but the treatment was totally ineffective: many, many people died and the sick and dying were completely ignored. They began to take people who were too weak to work to the crematorium thus condemning to death many of the camp residents. And the poet, who had almost been a victim of the plague, saw what was happening and immortalized the sights in an epic poem.

One of the cruel games that the Germans invented was called workout exercises, which was really a torture session. They would make the exhausted prisoners jump like frogs, dance, crawl or duck walk. The Germans and Estonians would watch with delight as the poor unfortunates jumped around on the parade ground with their last ounce of strength. This was their favorite form of entertainment.

A few days before Hannuka, 1943 a few prisoners in the camp decided to celebrate the holiday. They met secretly in the number 1 men's block and chose a committee. The committee's mandate was to prepare a program and meet up with the women and youngsters in other huts, so that as many as possible would know about the celebration while ensuring that no word of it would reach the Germans. One of the prisoners who worked in the mechanical workshop took it upon himself to prepare the hanukiah (the special 9-branched candelabrum lit during Hannuka), another to obtain candles. Katriel Broida, Fima and Mark Shapira, Sima Kanterowitz and Hirsh Glick were responsible for the entertainment. The celebration was supposed to be on the first night of Hannuka. However, unexpectedly, Kurt Panika, the SS commander in charge of the camp, appeared. The organizers were very shocked and barely managed to hide their preparations, to leave the hut and return to their regular posts. They decided to hold the celebration the following night and they succeeded in doing so. This time no Germans and no Estonians turned up. The tin hanukiah was hung on the wall and the candles cast a flickering light over the group. Those present withdrew into themselves, remembering similar celebrations at home together with the members of their family who were no longer among the living.

Everyone was very sad. Katriel Broida saved the situation: he began talking and they all listened to him attentively. He tried to brighten the atmosphere. Fima and Mark Shapira recited passages from plays that they had appeared in at the Vilna theater.  Sima Kanterowitz sang folk songs and Hirsh Glick read a poem he had written entitled Happy End. The poem is about a Jew from Vilna who arrived at the Narva camp by himself, without any family. He was hungry and barefooted but his morale was high and, despite all the troubles, he continued hoping for the best. He secretly hoped that his parents were alive and that they would meet up again, but the Jew got progressively weaker and eventually ended up in the camp hospital, lying on a filthy bed, exhausted, waiting for death to deliver him from his suffering, and felt great pain when they pulled out his gold teeth. At the last moment, he saw a ray of light that brightened the darkness of his life. He suddenly felt that his youth had been restored and he felt great hope for a good life. However, the ray of light disappeared and, once more, he saw himself lying in the dark place, red and green flames engulfed his body and, black smoke rose towards the heavens from the smokestack. The poet's tremulous voice together with the words of the poem expressed what many of them felt. Hannuka was not the festival of light and joy but the festival of gloom and memories in the shadow of impending death. The people returned to their huts in the freezing night which was cruelly interrupted by the morning wake-up call.

When the Red Army returned to Estonia in 1944 and advanced towards the camp, the Germans rushed to obliterate traces of their crimes. Thousands were forced to march towards Germany; many of them died along the way. Some of them were transferred to other camps and many were exterminated. Hirsh Glick escaped with two of his friends to the forest where they hid and awaited the Red Army. Unfortunately for them, a group of Estonian guards found them first and handed them over to the Germans. Kurt Panika, himself, dealt with them and made an example of them until they breathed their last breath. Hirsh Glick was twenty when he died