A Song So Powerful it Beat the Nazis

The Jewish Partisan’s Song, Zog Nit Keinmol, is one of the most powerful songs ever written. We’ve rounded up a translation, a Hebrew version, an English version and even a heavy metal version.

Zog Nit Keinmol is considered one of the main Yiddish anthems of the Holocaust. It was sung in the ghettoes, later by Holocaust survivors and at Holocaust memorials all over the world.

The lyrics of the song were written by Hirsch Glick in 1943. He was a young Jew in the Vilna Ghetto. During World War II, the song was sung by Jewish resistance fighters. It was a symbol of resistance for the Jews in their fight against the Nazis.

Here is a translation of the song:

Never say this is the end of the road.
Wherever a drop of our blood falls, our courage will grow anew.
Our triumph will come and our resounding footsteps will proclaim: We are here!

From the land of palm trees to the far off land of snow,
we shall be coming with our torment and our woe.
And everywhere our blood has sunk into the earth, our bravery and vigor will blossom forth!

We’ll have the morning sun to set our days aglow.
Our evil yesterdays will vanish with the foe.
But if time is long before the sun appears, let this song go like a signal through the years.

This song was written with our blood and not with lead.
It’s not a song that summer birds sing overhead.
It was a people amidst burning barricades that sang the song of ours with pistols and grenades.

So never say you go on your last way.
Though darkened skies may now conceal the blue of the day.
Because the hour for which we hungered is so near.
Beneath our feet the earth shall thunder: We are here!

The Hebrew version: