"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.