Y. DISKONT

Y. DISKONT (d. 1943)

            He was born in Kovno, Lithuania.  He was a Hebrew teacher and cultural leader.  When the Nazis occupied Lithuania, he was in the Kovno ghetto, and there he composed a great number of Yiddish songs, which were sung in other ghettoes and camps as well.  A number of his songs, written in the years 1941-1943, were published in a volume compiled by Sh. Katsherginski, Lider fun di getos un lagern (Songs from the ghettos and camps) (New York, 1948).  His songs “Serenade” (Serenade), “In der yeshive” (In the yeshiva), “Mayn kleyner martirer” (My little martyr), and “Dos geto-land” (The ghetto country) convey the feelings of Jews in the ghetto.  His songs “Himl un erd veln zingen” (Heaven and earth will sing) and “Genug tsu tsitern” (Enough to cause anxiety)—composed over the days of Hanukkah in 1943—were thematically influenced by Jewish partisan activists.  He died in a German concentration camp.

Sources: Sh. Katsherginski, Lider fun di getos un lagern (Songs from the ghettos and camps) (New York, 1948); B. Mark, Umgekumene shrayber fun di getos un lagern (Murdered writers from the ghettos and camps) (Warsaw, 1954), pp. 207-8.