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Songs of the ghettos, concentration camps, and World War II partisan outposts

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Partisan Songs

Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road (Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn veg)

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Lyrics by: Hirsh Glik

Music by: Dmitri and Daniel Pokrass

Language: Yiddish


Performed by Betty Segal, with Akiva Daykhes, concertina, ca. 1946

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    Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn.

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    Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road

    News of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 1943 inspired the Vilna poet and underground fighter Hirsh Glik (ca. 1921–ca. 1944) to write Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road (the Yiddish…

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  • Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn.

    Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn. —From Mark Dvorzhetski, Hirshke Glik, Paris, 1966. All rights reserved.

  • Betty Segal in the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Germany, ca. 1946.

    Betty Segal in the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Germany, ca. 1946. —Shlomo and Rivka Baran Collection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

  • Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn.
  • Betty Segal in the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Germany, ca. 1946.

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Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn.

Pencil drawing of Hirsh Glik by Y. Benn.
—From Mark Dvorzhetski, Hirshke Glik, Paris, 1966. All rights reserved.

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Betty Segal in the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Germany, ca. 1946.

Betty Segal in the Landsberg displaced persons camp. Germany, ca. 1946.
—Shlomo and Rivka Baran Collection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

News of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April 1943 inspired the Vilna poet and underground fighter Hirsh Glik (ca. 1921–ca. 1944) to write Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road (the Yiddish title is often shortened to Zog nit keynmol). With a melody taken from a march tune composed for the Soviet cinema, the song spread quickly beyond the ghetto walls and was soon adopted as the official anthem of the Jewish partisans. Glik was later deported to an Estonian labor camp and is presumed to have lost his life during an escape attempt. His song remains a favorite at Holocaust commemoration ceremonies worldwide.

This early recording of Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road features vocalist Betty Segal, who later became a well-known Israeli stage and cinema actress. A native of Vilna and a survivor of the Vilna ghetto and several labor camps, Segal recorded Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road for the Munich Jewish Historical Commission, ca. 1946.

Recording Source

Yad Vashem/USHMM recorded sound archive

Related Links

  • Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (article in the USHMM’s Holocaust Encyclopedia)

  • Excerpt from Shmerke Kaczerginski's memoir I Was a Partisan, in which he recalls the birth of this song.

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    Excerpt from Shmerke Kaczerginski’s memoir I Was a Partisan, in which he recalls the birth of this song.

    The ghetto buzzed with excitement when over our hidden radio we heard the news flash from the Polish Underground: “Hello! Hello! The remaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto have taken up arms against the Nazis. The ghetto is in flames!” Word of the uprising boosted our morale, gave us pride. We grew wings. We brazenly stared at the Nazis-and they soon knew what this look signified. No doubt more than a few were thinking: “Perhaps I’ll have to fight the Jews of Vilna! Perhaps I’ll be killed!” For the evening of May First [1943], we had organized a cultural event, “Springtime in Yiddish Literature.” An innocent name, “Springtime.” But the hundreds who came understood that our real purpose was to celebrate May Day. One speaker, then another. One song, then another. And everything suffused with the spirit of Warsaw. [In the excitement,] I had not noticed Hirsh Glik standing by my side:

    What’s new with you, Hirshl?
    I've written a new song. Do you want to hear it?
    You wrote a song during all this commotion? So, read.
    Not now. I'll see you tomorrow.

    The next day, Hirsh stopped by quite early. “Listen closely,” he said. He sang quietly at first, but with passion, with heart. His eyes were ablaze. I wondered: Where does he find such unshakable faith? As his voice grew firmer, he began to hammer out the words, stamping his feet as if he were now on the march. I pressed his hand. “Wonderful, Hirshke, wonderful.” Through his words, I felt the impact that the Warsaw Uprising had made on him. Partisan Headquarters soon decided to designate Glik’s song the official hymn of the Underground fighters. But it was not necessary to wait for a decree: the song had already spread throughout the ghetto.

    — From I Was a Partisan by Shmerke Kaczerginski

Further Reading/Listening

  • Shmerke Kaczerginski, Ikh bin geven a partizan. Buenos Aires, 1952.

  • Ruth Rubin, Voices of a People. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979.

At the Edge of a Forest (Dort baym breg fun veldl) Auschwitz (Aušvits)

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