# data[].attributes.headline
Multimedia Link (Relevant Song, Video, or Podcast):

# data[].attributes.subject
Multimedia Link (Relevant Song, Video, or Podcast):

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) - Hillsong United lyrics

# data[].attributes.body
A link for a website to research about Vitka Kempner.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vitka Kempner

Video still from interview with Great Projects Film Company

Vitka Kempner was born in Kalish, Poland on the Polish-German border, in 1922. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Kalish fell and Vitka escaped to Vilna, Lithuania. In 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, attacking the Soviet Union and neighboring countries. Vilna was soon occupied, with the Jews forced into a ghetto. Hearing the rumors about the death camps, Vitka decided to take her destiny into her own hands.

Vitka joined the Vilna chapter of Ha-Shomer Ha-Tsa'ir, a Zionist youth group. The group decided to transform itself into a resistance cell, led by Abba Kovner. The group, was instrumental in organizing the larger Vilna resistance movement, known as the United Partisans Organization, (FPO). Vitka later helped found the 'Avengers', which would go on to become one of the most famous and most successful all-Jewish partisan units during the war.

Vitka was responsible for the FPO's first act of sabotage, smuggling a homemade bomb out of the ghetto and blowing up a Nazi train line. The group began to arm themselves, smuggling weapons through the sewer system. Eventually, Vitka became one of Abba's chief lieutenants; they would marry after the war.

After a failed uprising, Vitka helped the FPO to evacuate much of the population through the sewer system to the surrounding forests. Several of the escapees became soldiers in their unit.
The Avengers continued their sabotage operations, destroying both the power plant and the waterworks of Vilna, the city they once loved.

As the Soviets advanced westward, the Avengers emerged from the forest and joined the struggle openly, helping to liberate Vilna. But the liberation of their country and the German defeat were not enough. Vitka and Abba wanted revenge. In 1945, Vitka planned an infiltration of the bakery at a Nuremberg POW camp and poisoned 3,000 loaves of bread with arsenic. The operation failed, but it is said that she continued to help hunt down Nazis after the war.

Besides avenging the Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Vitka and Abba also reached out to the survivors. They helped smuggle hundreds of European Jews in to British-occupied Palestine. Vitka and Abba followed in 1946, settling at Kibbutz Ein Horesh and raising two children.

Their story is chronicled in Rich Cohn's book The Avengers, which was also made into an audio book, narrated by Larry King.

Vitka Kempner passed away in February 2012 in her home in Israel, two and a half decades after Abba's death. She and Abba Kovner are survived by two children and several grandchildren.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the Vilna ghetto, Vitka along with Abba Kovner and several members of her Jewish youth group, helped organize the United Partisans Organization (FPO). As a partisan she smuggled weapons in and out of the ghetto through the sewer system, and helped destroy the local power plant and waterworks.

# data[].attributes.body
A link for a website to research about Vitka Kempner.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vitka Kempner was born in Kalisz, Poland, on the Polish-German border, in 1922. When she was 17, Kalisz fell to Germany in the first days of the war. Sensing danger, Vitka escaped and made her way to Vilna, which, like much of Eastern Europe, was controlled by the Soviet Union. Her move went against the lessons of history, as during World War I the Germans were benign occupiers and the Russians far more cruel, and for more than 150 years movement to the west was toward greater safety and freedom. When Operation Barbarossa, Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, was launched in 1941, Vilna was occupied, and the Jews were forced into a ghetto.

In the ghetto, Kempner joined a chapter of Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth group. Under the leadership of Abba Kovner, the group transformed into a resistance cell called the Avengers, which would go on to become one of the most famous and most successful all-Jewish partisan units during the war. Kovner had heard from a witness about the Nazis' massacre of Jews in nearby Ponary, a former retreat area in the forest. While most of those in the ghetto believed that Ponary was a labor camp, Kovner thought that the Ponary killing center was not an isolated action but part of a larger system of mass murder. The Avengers were determined to do everything they could to fight back. In a manifesto encouraging Jews to resist, Kovner wrote, "The only reply to a murderer is resistance. Brothers, it is better to die as free fighters than to live at the mercy of killers. Resist, resist, to our last breath."

Kovner and others, including Vitka Kempner, organized the Jewish resistance efforts into a larger collective called the FPO, the United Partisan Organization. Vitka was responsible for the FPO's first act of sabotage, smuggling a homemade bomb out of the ghetto and blowing up a Nazi train line. Vitka and other FPO members began smuggling weapons through the sewer system. Over time, Vitka became one of Kovner's chief lieutenants.

After a thwarted uprising, Vitka helped the FPO to evacuate much of the population through the sewer system to the surrounding forests. Several of the escapees became soldiers in their unit. From hiding, the Avengers continued their sabotage operations, destroying both the power plant and the waterworks of Vilna, the city they once loved.

As the Soviets advanced westward, the Avengers emerged from the forest and helped liberate Vilna. But the liberation of their country and the German defeat were not enough. Vitka and Kovner wanted revenge. In one of their boldest-and most morally questionable-actions, Kempner snuck into the bakery at the Stalag 13 POW camp for German SS officers and laced 3,000 loaves of bread with arsenic. According to British journalist Jonathan Freedland, an Associated Press report from 1946 indicated that 1,900 German POWs became sick.

Vitka Kempner and Abba Kovner married after the war, but their work did not end. They continued to look for ways to avenge Jews killed by Nazis, and the couple also reached out to the survivors to help smuggle hundreds of European Jews into British-occupied Palestine. The couple moved to Palestine themselves in 1946, settling at Kibbutz Ein Horesh, where they raised two children. Vitka Kempner passed away in February 2012 at her home in Israel, two and a half decades after her husband's death.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vitka Kempner was born in Kalisz, Poland, on the Polish-German border, in 1922. When she was 17, Kalisz fell to Germany in the first days of the war. Sensing danger, Vitka escaped and made her way to Vilna, which, like much of Eastern Europe, was controlled by the Soviet Union.

# data[].attributes.headline
Background Information:  Who, What, When, and Where

# data[].attributes.subject
Background Information:  Who, What, When, and Where

# data[].attributes.body
Vitka Kempner, Jewish Partisans, 1922, and Kalish, Vitka joined the Vilna chapter of Ha-SHomer Ha-Tsair, a youth group. The group chose to change into a resistance cell, that was led by Abba Kovner. The group was instrumental in organizing the larger vilna resistance movement, also known as the United Partisans  Organization, (FPO). Vitka helped find the ¨Avengers¨ that would become one of the most famous and most successful all-Jewish partisan during the  war.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Act of Resistance (HOW): Notes, Details, Dates, Important Facts:

# data[].attributes.subject
The Act of Resistance (HOW): Notes, Details, Dates, Important Facts:

# data[].attributes.body
In 1941 Jews were forced to go into a ghetto. Vikta organized the Jewish resistance into a large collective called the FPO. Vitka was responsible for the first act of sabotaging, smuggling, and blowing up a Nazi train line. Nitka and other people began to smuggling weapons through sewer systems.

# data[].attributes.headline
What happened to them after? Were there any consequences?:

# data[].attributes.subject
What happened to them after? Were there any consequences?:

# data[].attributes.body
The Soviets advanced westward, Kempner emerged from the forest and helped. The German defeat was not enough, Kempner snuck into a bakery at the Stalag 13 POW camp for German SS officers and did something to bread that 1,900 German POWs became sick.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
It seems like Vitka and some people are going somewhere or training.

# data[].attributes.headline
Describe the Impact/Outcome (the result of their resistance):)

# data[].attributes.subject
Describe the Impact/Outcome (the result of their resistance):)

# data[].attributes.body
After a uprise, Vitka helped to evacuate much of the population through sewer systems to surrounding forests. Several escapees became soldiers in the unit. They continued their sabotage operations, destroying the power plant and waterworks of Vilna. Vilna was a city they once loved.

# data[].attributes.headline
What was their motivation for resisting?:

# data[].attributes.subject
What was their motivation for resisting?:

# data[].attributes.body
¨He only reply to a murderer is resistance. Brothers, it is better to die as free fighters than to live at the mercy of killers. Resist, resist, to our last breath."

# data[].attributes.body
¨Partisans and Countries¨, Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, 2022 https://www.jewishpartisans.org//partisans/vitka-kempner. Accessed 15 February, 2022.

¨Vitka Kempner Biography¨, Facing History and Ourselves, 2022, https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/resistance-during-holocaust/vitka-kempner-s-biograph., Accessed 16 February, 2022.

# data[].attributes.headline
Quotable Quotes, Survivor’s Story, and/or Link and Title of Informational Website:

# data[].attributes.subject
Quotable Quotes, Survivor’s Story, and/or Link and Title of Informational Website:

# data[].attributes.body
“Vitka Kempner’s Biograpghy” https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/resistance-during-holocaust/vitka-kempner-s-biography