Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt

"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.