Hirsh Glik (1922 – 1944)
Hirsh Glik was born on April 24th. 1922, in the area of Shnipeshok, Lithuania where his Father Velvl dealing in second hand clothing. The nature of poverty ensured Hirsh was unable to finish his formal education earlier than he had hoped and he began a career as an apprentice in the paper business. He was wholly unsuited to such a discipline, which offered him no vision or outlook however, and he then began work as a clerk in a hardware store. The word outstanding is often used to describe Hirsh when, as a 13 year old in 1935, this young writer began writing his own Poetry, usually in Hebrew.
“..Never say this is ..final road for you ..though leadened skies may cover over skies of blue ..As ..hour that we longed for is so near ..Our step beats out ..message we are here.” Hirsh Glik.
The switch to writing in other disciplines evolved till he was more frequently writing in Yiddish as a way of preserving his words in the discipline of a language that was more widespread. Here, Hirsh became well known amongst his peers of poets and fellow writer’s and we have to recognise, in the literary integrity of the Jewish People, that this was still a push back against everything that the Nazi’s demanded from the Jews. Anything outside what the forces of Hitler’s Final Solution required of the Jewish People under duress and suppression would be an instant death sentence for any Jew contradicting these intentions.
“..From lands so green with palms to lands all white with snow ..We shall be coming with our anguish and our woe ..And where a spurt of our blood fell on ..earth ..There our courage and our spirit have rebirth.” Hirsh Glik.
On May 1st. 1943 there was such a literary gathering in the Vilna Ghetto with a group of Jewish poets, thinkers, writers all meetting for the Spring in Yiddish Literature. This was such an Evening for an expression of the freedom to be afforded by the composition of words that those like Hirsh and his fellow poet Szmerke Kaczerginski issued and which could be momentarily uplifting. Outside, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was being waged and Jews everywhere were awakening to the very sense of opposition to the barbarism that they had encountered.
“..early morning sun will brighten our day ..And yesterday with our foe will fade away. But if ..time is long before ..sun appears ..Then let this song go like a signal through ..years.” Hirsh Glik.
While being somehow free to challenge edicts and decrees to slightly subvert the Nazi intention to crush all Jewish Culture. On this particular occasion, where Hirsh presented his Song of the Partsans, the Zog nit Keynmol, Never Say, we owe to the recollection of his Friend Szmerke, who recollects in these terms what Hirsh sought to deliver, the pertinence of his symbolic Poem. Also, the words are brought back to the Vilna Ghetto by Joseph Glazman who met Hirsh in the Rzesza Labour Camp.
“..listen carefully ..I’ll sing it for you. He began to sing it softly ..full of excitement. His eyes glowed with little sparks. ..hour for which we yearned will come anew. Where did he get his faith. His voice became firmer. He tapped out ..rhythm with his foot ..as if he was marching.” Szmerke (Shmaryahu) Kaczerginski.
The clear Jewishness of Civilisation was to be maintained in the jaws of an immeasureable atrocity that was slaughtering the Jewish People. In effect though, that challenge not to conform, but to express the validity of words and expression, which came in many forms, grew in both popularity and resonance with the Jews of Lithuania. Hirsh was well acquainted with stalwarts of the literary elite of Vilna, Avraham Sutzkever and Leah Rudnitski and these wrote and used words that were issued both literally and, raised in the voices of those like Hirsh declared them in Poems and the narrative of a defiant hope that was forever springing eternal.
“..This song was written with our blood and not with lead ..It’s not a song that summer birds sing overhead ..This is a song a people sang amid collapsing walls ..With guns in hand they heeded to ..call.” Hirsh Glik.
As the Wehrmacht occupied Vilna on June 24th. 1941, Hirsh and his Father were among the Jews taken into forced Labour units to work in the peat bogs at the Labour Camps of Biala Waka and Rzesza. Then, in early 1943, with the Biala Waka Camp being liquidated, and this is where Hirsh wrote The Cornstalk or Dos Zangl, before he was returned to the Vilna Ghetto. Here, Hirsh joined the FPO, the United Partisan Organization or Fareynegte Partizaner Organitzatsye. On September 1 st. 1943, Hirsh was captured along with his FPO unit and was transported to the Estonian Campa at Narva and then Goldfilz.
“..So never say ..road now ends for you ..Though leadened skies may cover over skies of blue ..As ..hour that we longed for is so near ..Our step beats out ..message we are here!” Hirsh Glik.
At sometime during the Summer of 1944 Hirsh, together with another 40 interned and some fellow fighters of the FPO escaped from the Camp at Goldfilz. The Russian Army was in the vicinity and liberation was imminent and the group sought to enjoin further elements of the Russian Partisan groups operating in the area. However, this is where the life of Hirsh ad his fellow Partisans was ended with the likelihood beeing they were trapped by German skirmishers and were killed in action.
“..At most Holocaust commemorations we sing ..Partisans’ Song ..Zog Nit Kein’mol ..by Hirsh Glick. Hirsh Glick was my Friend ..and I was privileged to be ..first ..together with 2 others ..to whom Hirsh read ..words of ..song.” Phillip Maisel.
Added to memory are Hisrsh’s works, as they were distributed aurily and thanks to much of this effort, his work is remembered. It is feared that most of his written words were buried in a safe space somewhere within the Vilna Ghetto and are all now lost to posterity. All the while as Hirsh wrote and produced works befitting an artiste of his literary quality his efforts were uplifting as they became framed by his growing skills as a Partisan Fighter.
Song of the Partsans, the Zog nit Keynmol, Never Say.
“..Never say this is the final road for you,
Though leadened skies may cover over skies of blue,
As the hour that we longed for is so near,
Our step beats out the message we are here!
From lands so green with palms to lands all white with snow,
We shall be coming with our anguish and our woe,
And where a spurt of our blood fell on the earth,
There our courage and our spirit have rebirth.
The early morning sun will brighten our day,
And yesterday with our foe will fade away.
But if the time is long before the sun appears,
Then let this song go like a signal through the years.
This song was written with our blood and not with lead,
It’s not a song that summer birds sing overhead,
This is a song a people sang amid collapsing walls,
With guns in hand they heeded to the call.
So never say the road now ends for you,
Though leadened skies may cover over skies of blue,
As the hour that we longed for is so near,
Our step beats out the message we are here!” Hirsh Glik.
