Generations After

Generations After, Inc. is an organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, created by children and grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors. We know that our legacy has given us the responsibility of representing in this world all of the relatives and all of the kinsmen who did not survive.

We owe it to our parents and to those who perished to do our utmost to respect and assist Survivors, to ensure that Holocaust educational programs and community events are maintained and promoted and to develop relationships and networks with descendants of Survivors, their children, their grandchildren and friends.

Our goal is to grow our organization to become a better resource for Survivors and to join with members of the next generation in fulfilling our legacy.

This recording of the Partisan song was made for the Generations After web page. The poem was written by Hirsh Glik, who set it to lyrics of a Russian folk song. He was born in Vilna in 1920 and while living in the Vilna ghetto he became a member of the underground resistance which fought off Nazi troops in the surrounding forests. The song became the official hymn of the resistance and traveled from partisan outposts to concentration camps throughout Eastern Europe.

Hirsh Glick died at the age of 23. The song has been translated into many languages and is still performed throughout the world at Holocaust Remembrance events by Survivors, their descendents and friends.

David Dembling, a Holocaust Survivor from Poland, sings in Yiddish. Emily Paley, a high school student from Newton sings an English translation and Jenna Brown, from Watertown and a recipient of a scholastic award from Facing History & Ourselves, plays the melody on the violin.

Jenna Brown, Watertown, MA winner of Facing History and Ourselves award for Holocaust Studies

History of Hirsh Glik the writer of the Song of the Partisans (1920-1944)

Hirsch Glik was born in 1920 to a working class family in Vilna. Glik began writing poetry at the age of 13, and was involved throughout his adolescent years in literary circles such as Yung Vilne ( Young Vilna) and its offshoot Yungvald (Young Forest). In September of 1941, Glik was sent to the first of two ghettos established in the city. One of the most significant political forces in the Vilna ghetto was the underground Fareynigte Partizaner Organizatsye, of which Glik was a member. The FPO was established in 1942 to organize armed resistance in the forests surrounding Vilna. However, the members of the FPO were also heavily involved in the cultural life of the Vilna ghetto. Many partisan writers, such as Glik, saw song writing as an effective way of promoting their cause, encouraging resistance, and creating a feeling of communal strength.

Glik composed the popular song ‘Zog nit keynol as du geyst dem letstn veg’ (Never say that you are walking the final road), which became the official hymn of the FPO shortly after it was written in 1943. There were two important events that likely influenced the writing of this song; first, a battle between a group of Jewish partisans and SS officers in the forests near Vilna in 1943 and second, news of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The song was based on a popular Soviet melody by composer Dimitri Pokrass. This song’s popularity extended far beyond the confines of the Vilna ghetto; Glik’s song found its way to concentration camps throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. We know from survivor accounts that ‘Zog nit keynol as du geyst dem letstn veg’ was also translated into several European languages

In September of 1943, Glik was deported to the first of several Estonian concentration camps. Throughout his internment, Glik continued writing poems. In 1944, as Russian forces were closing in, he escaped from the camp to join the partisans, but disappeared, and was presumed dead. [2]

[2] Excerpt taken from the Jewish Music Research Centre, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem