Misplaced Pages

Vilna Ghetto

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.243.87.210 (talk) at 20:29, 19 November 2006 (→External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:29, 19 November 2006 by 71.243.87.210 (talk) (→External links)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

The Vilna Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto in Vilnius, now in Lithuania. Vilna was then the most common English name for the city, similar to the Yiddish name.

General history

German troops entered the city on June 24, 1941. Over the course of the summer, troops killed more than 35,000 Jews living in Vilnius in a rapid extermination program. On September 6 and 7, 1941, the Nazis herded the remaining 38,000 Jews into the parameters of two ghettos. Converts, "half-Jews" and spouses of Jews were also forced into the ghetto. This occurred directly after "The Great Provocation" on September 2 in which they were evicted from their homes and 3,700 Jews were killed. Moving to the ghetto was a difficult task because Jews were not allowed to use transportation. They could only take what they were physically able to carry. Huge crowds formed to watch the Jews march into the ghetto.

The area designated for the ghetto was the old Jewish quarter in the center of the city. The Nazis split the area into two ghettos. The splintering of the Jewish community into two parts made it easier for the Nazis to control the group and to carry out their plans. Like the other Jewish ghettos that Nazi Germany set up during World War II, the Vilna Ghetto was created to dehumanize the people, as well as to exploit cheap labor from its inhabitants. Conditions were extremely crowded and people were surrounded by unsanitary conditions, disease and death.

By the end of October 1941, the Nazis had murdered the inhabitants of the second ghetto and liquidated the ghetto completely. They declared from that point on only 12,000 Jews would remain in the one ghetto in order to serve the needs of military and economy. In reality, 20,000 remained all together. The ghetto was patrolled by German soldiers and members of the Lithuanian police. Systematically, the Germans would carry out "Aktions", or massive killing sprees, to reduce the number of sick and elderly. These Aktions were conducted on a regular basis from the creation of the ghetto until January 1942. The period between January 1942 and March 1943 was known as ghetto stabilization where German murder in the ghetto decreased. However, from August 6 to September 5, 1943, 7,130 Jews were deported to Estonia based on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. Finally, on September 23, 1943, the ghetto was liquidated and the majority of the Jewish population was either killed in the forest of Ponary or sent to death camps across Eastern Europe.

A small remnant of Jews remained after the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, primarily at the Kailis slave labor camp and at the HKP slave labor camp. The HKP camp was commanded by Wehrmacht Major Karl Plagge, who with the help of some of his men managed to shield many of his workers from the murderous intent of the SS. 250 of HKP's Jews ultimately survived the war, they represent the single largest group of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Vilna.

Resistance

The United Partisan Organization-Fareinikte Partisaner Organizatzie - F.P.O.- was formed on January 21, 1942 in the Vilna Ghetto. It took on the motto: "We will not allow them to take us like beasts to the slaughter." This was one of the first resistance organizations that was established in the ghettos during World War II. Unlike in other ghettos, the resistance movement in the Vilna Ghetto was not run by ghetto officials. Jacob Gens, head of the ghetto, cooperated with German officials in stopping armed struggle. The FPO brought together socialist-Zionists, right-wing conservatives, communists and Bundists. It was headed by Yitzhak Wittenberg, Josef Glazman, and Abba Kovner. The goals of the FPO were to establish self-defense in the ghetto, to sabotage German industrial and military activities and to join the partisan and Red Army’s fight against the Nazis.

However, the FPO did not succeed in its mission. In early 1943, the Germans caught a resistance member in the forest and the Judenrat, in response to German threats, gave Wittenberg over to the Gestapo. The FPO was able to rescue him through an armed struggle and were then able to set up a small militia. The Judenrat did not tolerate this, though, because the Nazis constantly put pressure on them to end the resistance or face liquidation. The Judenrat knew that Jews were smuggling weapons into the ghetto and when a Jew was arrested for the purchase of a revolver, they finally gave the people an ultimatum. The Judenrat turned the people against the resistance members by making them seem like selfish enemies who were provoking the Nazis. Gens emphasized the people’s responsibility for one another. He said that resistance was sacrificing the good of the community. In the end, the people confronted the resistance and demanded their right to live. The resistance would not fire on the other Jews and they were eventually disarmed and arrested.

When the Nazis came to liquidate the ghetto in 1943, the members of the FPO again congregated. Gens took control of the liquidation so as to rid the ghetto of the Germans, but helped fill the quota of Jews with those who would fight but were not necessarily part of the resistance. The FPO fled to the forest and fought with the partisans. Abba Kovner lived until the age of 69 and died in 1987.

Cultural life

The Vilna Ghetto was called "Yerushalayim of the Ghettos" because it was known for its intellectual and cultural spirit. Before the war, Vilnius had been known as "Yerushalayim d'Lita" (Yiddish: Jerusalem of Lithuania) for the same reason. The center of cultural life in the ghetto was the Mefitze Haskole Library which was called the "House of Culture". It contained a library, reading hall, archive, statistical bureau, room for scientific work, museum, book kiosk, post office, and the sports ground. Groups were set up, such as the Literary and Artistic Union and the Brit Ivrit Union, that organized events commemorating Yiddish and Hebrew authors and put on plays in these languages. The popular Yiddish magazine Folksgezunt was continued in the ghetto and its essays were presented to the public in the form of lectures. Yitskhok Rudashevski (1927-1943), a young teen who wrote a diary of his life in the ghetto during 1941 to 1943, mentions a number of these events and his participation in them. He was murdered in the liquidation of 1943, probably at Ponary. His diary was discovered in 1944 by his cousin.

File:Wilna2 tn.jpg
Poster, Announcement of the play "The Eternal Jew", June 16, 1943

A scientific institution called the "Ghetto University" was established to study math, physics, chemistry, philosophy and other social sciences. Its intellectuals wrote many papers, hoping to publish them after the war. Many works of poetry and literature were also created by the Jews in the ghetto. Performances and concerts featuring the Symphony Orchestra and the two ghetto choruses were put on in the ghetto. Initially, this matter was controversial because many Jews were offended by the idea of artistic performances in a place where thousands of Jews had been murdered. Gens, who had originated the idea, pushed through on the initiative and it was successful in raising the morale of the people. Art was seen as a source of stimulation and hope to the people. During 1942, over 120 performances were presented in the ghetto.

Pictures of the Ghetto

J Klaczko Street

File:Vilna4.jpg

The Jewish Library

Primary documents consulted

References

  • Shneidman, N.N. Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Vilnius, A Personal Perspective. (Okaville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1998).
  • Arad, Yitzhak. Ghetto in Flames. (Jerusalem: Ahva Cooperative Printing Press, 1980).
  • Feierstein, Daniel. “The Jewish Resistance Movements in the Ghettos of Eastern Europe.” In: Life in the Ghettos During the Holocaust. Ed. Eric J. Sterling. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005).
  • Kostanian-Danzig, Rachel. Spiritual Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto. (Vilnius: The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 2002).
  • Kruk, Herman. The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).
  • Rudashevski, Yitskhok (1927-1943). Diary of the Vilna Ghetto, June 1941-April 1943. (Israel: Ghetto Fighters' House, 1973).

See also

External links

There is an excellent online research for studying the Holocaust and all related information. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ H.E.A.R.T Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team Their Mission: Today there are many resources available for those wishing to learn more of what the world has come to know as "The Holocaust" - the planned extermination of entire ethnic, religious, political, and other groups by the government of a sovereign state, Germany, and her allies during the years 1933 -1945. Memorials, museums, and sufficient books to fill entire libraries are devoted to the subject. But the advent of the internet has created a new, globally accessible source of information on the Holocaust. Some of this information is valuable, often unique. Much of it, poorly researched and sourced, is not. The hateful writings emanating from the twisted minds of those who would deny the reality of what is irrefutable are much worse.

-H.E.A.R.T


Categories: