"Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt"[1] ("Quiet, the Night is Full of Stars"; Yiddish: שטיל, די נאַכט איז אױסגעשטערנט)[2] or "Partizaner 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 (a local word from Vilnius), nagan (a Russian term referring to Nagant M1895), and pistoyl – to denote an automatic pistol. Perhaps this was meant to show multiculturalism of the region.[7]

It appears on Pete Seeger's We Shall Overcome - The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert., recorded June 8, 1963, under the title Schtille Di Nacht in listings.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Silverman, Jerry (2001). The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-815-60708-3.
  2. ↑ Gilbert, Shirli (2005). Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps. Clarendon Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780199277971.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Partisaner Lid – Partisan Song". Heartstrings: Music of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  4. 1 2 Teichman, Milton (1994). Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust. University of Illinois Press. p. 248. ISBN 9780252063350.
  5. 1 2 Abley, Mark (2004). Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages. Vintage Canada (Random House of Canada). p. 215. ISBN 9780307368232.
  6. ↑ Frühauf, Tina; Hirsch, Lily E. (2014). Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Postwar German Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9780199367481.
  7. ↑ Rubin, Ruth (1979). Voices of a People: The Story of Yiddish Folksong. University of Illinois Press. p. 460. ISBN 9780252069185.
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