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Jewish Partisans in Vilna

Following the events in the ghetto of the 1st of September 1943, the Staff Command of the FPO reluctantly decided not to begin a fight to the death. Among their many concerns was further endangering the inhabitants of the ghetto. Instead they began to gradually send their members to fight in the forests.

Partisan Rachel Rudnitzki together with other armed partisans in the streets of Vilna during the liberation of the city.

Partisan Rachel Rudnitzki together with other armed partisans in the streets of Vilna during the liberation of the city.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3271/13
Courtesy of The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF)

Partisan Rachel Rudnitzki together with other armed partisans in the streets of Vilna during the liberation of the city.

Voices From the Forest: Testimonies of Partisans from Vilna

Voices From the Forest: Testimonies of Partisans from Vilna

Baruch Shub- The Holocaust in Vilna

Baruch Shub- The Holocaust in Vilna

Partisans: Father and son, the Meilikowski family

Partisans: Father and son, the Meilikowski family

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3380/405

Partisans: Father and son, the Meilikowski family

Chana Azkut, partisan medic and member of the F.P.O. in Vilna

Chana Azkut, partisan medic and member of the F.P.O. in Vilna

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3271/78
Courtesy of The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF)

Chana Azkut, partisan medic and member of the F.P.O. in Vilna

Armed partisans Abba Kovner (left) and Shmerke Kaczerginski in Joniškis, Lithuania, 1944

Armed partisans Abba Kovner (left) and Shmerke Kaczerginski in Joniškis, Lithuania, 1944

Yad Vashem Photo Archives, 3380/433

Armed partisans Abba Kovner (left) and Shmerke Kaczerginski in Joniškis, Lithuania, 1944

Jewish partisans after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

Jewish partisans after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

Standing, from left: Elchanan Magid, Jacob Prener, Bluma Markowicz (killed by a German air attack two days after the photo was taken), Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak, Leib Szapirstein, Vitka Kempner
Below, from left: Gershon, Pesach Mizerecz, Motl Szames
The photo was taken by a military reporter from Moscow, after the fighting on the streets of besieged Vilna abated.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives CO5/121

Jewish partisans after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

Jewish partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest, in the city center after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

Jewish partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest, in the city center after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

Top row, middle: Abba Kovner
The photo was taken by a military reporter from Moscow, after the fighting on the streets of besieged Vilna abated.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives EO9/120

Jewish partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest, in the city center after liberation. Vilna, 14 July 1944

After liberation, partisan Boris Yocha reenacts how he planted dynamite on a railroad track near Vilna to sabotage the Germans.

After liberation, partisan Boris Yocha reenacts how he planted dynamite on a railroad track near Vilna to sabotage the Germans.

Yad Vashem Photo Archives CO7/153

After liberation, partisan Boris Yocha reenacts how he planted dynamite on a railroad track near Vilna to sabotage the Germans.

Partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest. From left: Joseph Harmatz, Valentina Fashbelska and Abraham Szabrinski

Partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest. From left: Joseph Harmatz, Valentina Fashbelska and Abraham Szabrinski

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3883/3668

Partisans who fought in the Rudniki Forest. From left: Joseph Harmatz, Valentina Fashbelska and Abraham Szabrinski

Partisan David Pink in the street in Vilna

Partisan David Pink in the street in Vilna

Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3271/28
Courtesy of The Central Government Archives, Moscow

Partisan David Pink in the street in Vilna

David Labkowski (1906-1991): "Partisans in the Forest", 1956

David Labkowski (1906-1991): "Partisans in the Forest", 1956

Gouache on paper

Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum

David Labkowski (1906-1991): "Partisans in the Forest", 1956

In the second week of September 1943 about 150 FPO members left the sealed ghetto with their weapons via underground passageways or rooftops to the Narocz forest about 120km to the east of Vilna. On the day of the liquidation of the ghetto, the 23rd of September, about 90 FPO members left the ghetto through the sewers to the Rudniki forest. Four of them were caught by the German guards and hanged in Rossa square in front of the Jews who were assembled there prior to their being deported to Estonia. They were the FPO Staff Command members Abraham Chwojnik, his girlfriend Asia Bick, Jacob Kaplan and another young man.

The way to the forest was full of danger. From the ghetto the underground members were taken to the cemetery and from there marched to the forests. They walked only at night. Nissan Reznik, a member of the FPO Staff Command, describes the journey:

During the day we hid among the trees and the shrubs, camouflaging ourselves and avoiding any unnecessary movement lest we should encounter the Lithuanians that were wandering around or passing through the forests. If they had discovered us they would have called the Germans.

We had to eat and we had only one way to obtain food; to steal it. We were armed. When the food supplies dwindled, a partisan scout would take an elite team to the farmers' houses, knock on the door and inform them that this was a burglary and it was best for them to give us the food so that we would not need to use our weapons. More than once I threatened non-Jewish farmers with my weapon and took eggs and vegetables, bread, milk, beef and pork – anything that we could take. I didn't eat pork but there were those who did and we brought it for them.

Nissan Reznik, Nitsanim Me'afar – Sipuro Shel Chaver Hanoar Hatzioni Mi'mekimi Irgun Ha'FPO Ba'ghetto Vilna, p. 133

Related

In the Press

Jewish Partisans Raid Vilna; Blow Up Power Station; Jewish Cossacks Lauded in Moscow
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 28 Jun 1944
Jewish Survivors Beginning to Return from Hiding Places to Towns in Vilna District
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2 Aug 1944

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