Glick, Hirsh

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GLICK, HIRSH

GLICK, HIRSH (1922–1944), Yiddish poet and editor. Glick was born in Vilna and, as a teenager, became active in Ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'ir. In 1935 he began composing original verse in Hebrew. He joined the circle of the Yung Vilne group of Yiddish writers and, in 1939, edited and published four issues of the literary journal Yungvald. Glick spent the war years in the Vilna ghetto and forced labor camps nearby, where he continued to compose Yiddish poems, including the work for which he is best known, "Zog nit Keynmol" ("Never Say"), which became the official hymn of the Vilna partisan fighters. The poem was subsequently translated into many languages, including Hebrew (by the poet A. Shlonsky), Dutch, English, Polish, Romanian, and Spanish. In October 1943, Glick was transferred to the concentration camp at Goldfield (Estonia), from which he escaped the following year; he died in combat against the Nazis in the forest nearby.

bibliography:

lnyl, 2 (1958), 271–3; N. and M. Ausubel (eds.), A Treasury of Jewish Poetry (1957), 270, 445; N. Mayzl, Hirsch Glick un Zayn Lid "Zog Nisht Keyn Mol" (1949); M. Dvorjetski, Hirshke lick (1966). add. bibliography: Sh. Katsherginski, Ikh Bin Geven a Partizan (1947), 104–9; Sh. Lastik, Mitn Ponem Tsum Morgn (1952), 157–58; B. Mark, Umgekumene Yidishe Shraybers fun di Getos un Lagern (1954), 215–16.

[Elias Schulman /

Marc Miller (2nd ed.)]