Zog Nit Keynmol

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"Zog Nit Keynmol" (Yiddish: זאָג ניט קיין מאָל) (also referred to as "Partizaner Lied" or "Partisan song", though it shares this title with other works) is the name of a Yiddish song written in 1943 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inmate of the Vilna Ghetto.

A mural of Mordechai Anielewicz and his girlfriend Mira Fuchrer in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The mural is headed by the opening line of the song.

The lyrics Glick wrote were later set to music by Dmitri Pokrass. Hirsch was inspired to write the song by news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

[edit] Meaning

The title means "Never Say", and derives from the first line of the song, "Never say that you have reached the final road." "Zog Nit Keynmol" was adopted by a number of Jewish partisan groups operating in Eastern Europe. It became a symbol of resistance against Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust.

[edit] Resources

Fisher, Adam. An Everlasting Name: A Service for Remembering the Shoah. West Orange, NJ: Behrman House, 1991.
Kalisch, Shoshana and Barbara Meister. Yes, We Sang! Songs of the Ghettos and Concentration Camps. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.