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Abba Kovner was teenager in Vilna. He saw the abuse that was being done and decided to do something about it by joining a resistance. He was a poet, and influenced people through his poetry. When it was like there was nothing worth fighting for he encouraged them. He became the leader of FPO, a resistance group. He went on missions and what not , to fight for what he knew was right.

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"There Kovner and his followers operated a partisan division comprised solely of Jews, and performed many heroic acts of sabotage."

"In 1961 Kovner testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann and later dedicated his life to poetry, he also authored several books, for which he won the 1970 Israel Prize in Literature.''

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Abba Kovner (on the last step) disguised as a Jewish Brigade soldier.

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Kovner returns to Vilna with the Red Army taking back the City from the Germans

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Abba Kovner testifying at Eichmann's trial

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Kovner encouraging people to stand up for themselves in his poem, "One Living Word"

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Kovner encouraging people to stand up for themselves in his poem, "One Living Word"

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"No more willful silences.
No more verbal contact, he who loved to listen to so many will never again hear his own voice among them.

He will sit with his friends over talk from now on under constraint.
The talk. The thoughts. The friends.
And as he listens through the secret door he will turn his inner ear to the dark mumur: Son of man,
all this and all this never was and never will be
as good as one living word."

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Abba Kovner influencing many in his "speech"

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Abba Kovner influencing many in his "speech"

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"Jewish youth! Do not trust those who are trying to deceive you. Hitler plans to destroy all the Jews of Europe…We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter! True, we are weak and defenseless, but the only reply to the murderer is revolt! Brothers! Better to fall as free fighters than to live by the mercy of the murderers. Arise! Arise with your last breath!"

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https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/abba-kovner

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"Jewish youth! Do not trust those who are trying to deceive you. Hitler plans to destroy all the Jews of Europe...We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter! True, we are weak and defenseless, but the only reply to the murderer is revolt! Brothers! Better to fall as free fighters than to live by the mercy of the murderers. Arise! Arise with your last breath!"

With these words on December 31, 1941, Abba Kovner galvanized the divided factions of the Vilna ghetto resistance to join together and fight back against their would-be murderers. Three weeks later, the FPO (United Partisan Organization) was born.

Kovner would go on to command the FPO, lead the famed "Avengers" partisan unit, help found the State of Israel-becoming one of its most honored poets-and reputedly continue to hunt Nazis after the war.

Born in 1918 in Sebastopol, Russia, Kovner spent his high school years in Vilna, Lithuania-the 'Jerusalem of Europe'-where he joined the Ha-Shomer ha-Za'ir youth movement. Hearing rumors of killings and mass graves in nearby Ponar, Kovner and his youth group friends self-organized as partisans. They snuck out of the ghetto to execute sabotage missions, manufactured bombs, trained fighters, and acquired weapons which were smuggled into the ghetto in false-bottomed coffins or through the sewers.

The FPO continually pleaded with the Jews of Vilna to join the partisans in a popular uprising. Realizing Vilna's Jews would not rise up before the final destruction of the ghetto, Kovner sent the majority of the partisans (about 300) into the forest. Those who stayed, including Kovner, took up positions in abandoned buildings and briefly fought the Germans before escaping the destruction.

Kovner led the remaining partisans to the Rudnicki Forest where the "Avengers" earned a distinguished record, destroying over 180 miles of train tracks, 5 bridges, 40 enemy train cars, killing 212 enemy soldiers and rescuing at least 71 Jews. Kovner was convinced that Jews could gain self-respect through fighting, and that Jews must fight as Jews. He refused to be absorbed into Lithuanian or Russian partisan groups.

Kovner and the partisans returned to Vilna with the Red Army on July 7, 1944, recapturing the city from the Germans on July 13, 1944.

Following the war, Abba Kovner helped surviving Jews reach mandate Palestine. He also formed a new organization with 50 other partisans, reportedly attempting to poison thousands of Nazi and SS prisoners in a Nuremberg POW camp. Accounts differ as to how many Germans were injured or killed. Soon after, he and fellow Vilna partisan Vitka Kempner were married and smuggled into mandate Palestine.

In 1961, Kovner testified at the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Kovner continued to inspire people with his writing, and won the "Israel Prize" in literature for his poetry in 1970. Abba Kovner died in 1987.

Primary resources by the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. © 2018 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. For more information, go to www.jewishpartisans.org.

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Read the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's short biography of Abba Kovner.