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The Nazi's come to this village where the Jew's homes and village this is a picture of it during the process 

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Viliampole Village

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August 1944

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The acts of the Army and Resistance Groups.

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The acts of the Army and Resistance Groups.

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They come to village which looks abandoned,blown up,and burned down. They spot a man standing next to a rock he is covered in soil and clay and his hands are wounded and bleeding.The man notices them and call out “Jews you are free” at the call of their mother tongue the around 30-40 Jews crawl out of a manhole having not seen the sun in around 3 weeks.

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This man right here is protecting a bunker which is hidden by a manhole

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The bunker here which you can see in the lower right contains 31 Jewish civilians in which have not seen the sun in 3-4 weeks.

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Soviet troops view the ruins of the Kovno ghetto

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This is where all the information taken from for part one

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Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto
Chaim Yelin & Dimitri-Ghelpernus

- Dimitri-Ghelpernus Author

Part 1 "In the Ghetto Grip"

I. AMONG THE RUINS

When at the beginning of August 1944 Kovno was liberated from the fascist invaders, partisan groups entered the city together with Soviet Army detachments. Among them was the group "Pirmin" ("Forward") and parts of the groups "Mirtis Ocupantams" ("Death to the Invaders"), "Vladas Baronas", "Laisvoi Lietuva" ("Free Lithuania") and others. Many Jews, former members of Kovno underground anti-fascist ghetto organisation fought among them.

Having returned to their home town, without washing off road dust, with their sub-machine guns over their shoulders, Kovno ghetto partisans crossed the river Neris (Villia) and entered Kovno suburb of Villiampole (Village).

The partisans were going there with a heavy heart, where their fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and relatives suffered in the grips of the ghetto - all those who failed to make their escape via barbed wire fence and police cordons of the Jewish prison.

They faced a terrible picture: the whole ghetto was blown up and burned down. The remains of the burned and charred bodies could be seen everywhere. Smoke was still coming from the ruins of the houses. The bodies of people who resisted the Gestapo, who did not follow the orders of their oppressors, were lying under those ruins. These people resisted German orders and did not let the Germans to transport them to the west. They were prepared to meet death rather than to leave like slaves.

And so the partisans walked among the ruins. Could it be true that everything had perished and all life had been turned into ashes? A cowering figure of a man emerged from the ruins of a big block C (Varniu street 32; * now P.Zibertas street). His clothes were torn and soiled in clay and sand, his hands were bleeding.

Having seen the Red Army soldiers and the partisans, having heard his mother tongue, this exhausted man came to the manhole which he had recently dug out with his bare hands and shouted, "Jews, you are free!" Thirty four people, one by one, crawled out of the manhole. All were emaciated and painfully pale, even their skin was translucent.

They had sunken cheeks, they were screwing up their cheeks because of pain - they had not seen day light for three weeks! When the order to gather for transportation was issued, these people hid in a dug out, six-meter deep shelter. The house above them was blown up. The exit was buried under the ruble.

These documents were hidden at a critical time, at the beginning of 1944, when they were expecting the ghetto liquidation. The yellowed pages, which were handed from person to person in the ghetto, finally saw the daylight. These pages gave hope, lifted spirits, they helped to organize and to mobilize the fighting ghetto vanguard, who came out armed in order to take vengeance on fascists.

Among the found documents, which are now kept in the State archives of the Lithuanian SSR, was the charter of the ghetto antifascist organisation. The first article of it states that the main aim of the organisation is the fight against fascism until the bitter end. A "combat programme" of the movement was also found. Aims, methods and tactics of the fight were also formulated in it.

Introduction of the "combat programme", written in the occupied territory, contains information on the origins of the resistance movement in Kovno ghetto. It says, "We were the first ones to experience the German invasion and occupation as we lived in the boarder region.

Having attacked the Soviet Union, Germans occupied Lithuania as early as the first week. Storm which is sweeping a country has a terrifying power. Many town and country people, having been accused of sympathizing with the Soviet power, were killed.

Tens of thousands of Jews, who tried to escape further into the country, were caught and executed. Hundreds and thousands of Jews were incarcerated in Kovno forts, prisons and synagogues in other Lithuanian towns and villages. From there they were led to an execution point. The dead and wounded were thrown together into prepared pits.

A small number of surviving Lithuanian Jews were incarcerated in Kovno ghetto..." A number of other documents used by the author to write this book were found at the same time.

II. IN THE TURMOIL

Kovno - a former temporary capital of Lithuania - is one of the most important industrial and significant cultural centres of the republic. The city, which is situated in the very spot where the river Neris leads into Neman, was not far from the then border with Germany (80 km).

On the 22nd of June 1941 Molotov said in his speech," Today, at 4 a.m. without making their demands to the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German military forces attacked our country, breached the state border in many places and bombed the cities of Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol', Kovno and a number of others."

And so Kovno became one of the first cities to suffer from German fascists, who treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. The fascist hordes forced their way into Kovno suburbs as early as the night of the 23rd of June.

A small group of city residents, having used transport means which were at their disposal, managed to evacuate; but many of those making their way eastward on foot were captured by the attacking fascists. Such a fate befell those Jews who were trying to evacuate further east into the Soviet Union, having left behind their houses and other property.

1) Jewish population is forbidden to walk along city pavements. Jews must walk on the right edge of a pavement one behind the other.

2) Jews are forbidden to be in places for rest, to use public benches.

3) Jewish population is forbidden to use public transport. Every- where in public transport one should place notices which say: "Jews are not allowed!"

4)Those who break this law will face capital punishment!"

Order No.2 compels all Jews, irrespective of their gender or age, wear a star of David, 8-10 centimetre in diameter, on their chests and backs. Jews are allowed to be outdoors only at certain times of the day. They are forbidden to sell, exchange or dispose of in any other manner any of their property. Jews are forbidden to live with non-Jews.

The orders were getting tougher and tougher with time going by. Each new order tightened its grip on the Jewish population further... It was forbidden to buy food. Jews were condemned to hunger. On the basis of this order, at the beginning of August, in one day twenty six Jews were shot dead for trying to buy food from farmers.

Armed gangs of Lithuanian nationalists, former members of fascist organisations in bourgeois Lithuania - "Shauliu saiunga" (Riflemen), "Yaunoi Lietuva" (Young Lithuania), "Neolietuva" - various scum and criminals got the freedom of action. They began persecution of Soviet activists and families of Soviet Army servicemen, best sons and daughters of Lithuanian people were killed.

There were endless arrests of Soviet activists in the city. A great number of people died at the hands of Gestapo: Budjinskiene, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Pranas Zibertas, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania, Girsh Sesitskii, Sender Aigulskii and Jeruchim Natanzon, trade union activists, Vitautas Montvila,famous Lithuanian poet, Joseph Witz, Shcherbakov, well-known worker, with his wife and a newborn baby son, and very many others.

Over 1000 Jews were killed in a most terrible manner on the night of 26th of June in Kovno suburb of Villiampole. Ruthless executioners crashed children's heads with the butts of their guns. A six-year old girl was lying with a broken leg; she was grabbed and her body was hit against a telephone pole, this leg came off the body... Some bandits came across rabbi Salman Ossovskii while he was sitting clad in tallis with his prayer book. Those executioners cut his head off with a saw. They cut off the tongue and put out the eyes of the leader of Villiampole yeshiva Abraham Grodzenskii.

The executioners slaughtered whole families living in the streets Paneriu, Vidurine, Jurbako, Arëgalos and others. But even then there were already people who did not give their lives without a struggle. Sarah Soifer saw worker Benzl Fain breaking the skull of the fascist who entered his home first.The executioners attacked the owner of the flat, his wife and his child. Benzl was torn to pieces. The child's head was torn off and thrown out of a window into the street. This severed head was left there for several days.

A young Jew by the name of Strazh, an accountant in a Kovno bank, threw himself at one of the marauding bandits and put out his eyes. Blacksmith Shmuel Katz fought against fascists like a lion. But what could one do in the face of all rifles and machine-guns! And yet he fought for his human dignity till his last breath.

Blacksmith Jitzik Fridman, a Jewish strongman, came out with an axe to meet thugs from the "New Order". Such cases were numerous. Dead bodies of men and women were found at entrances into houses, in cellars, at entrances to those cellars and sheds, where they defended with axes and truncheons approaches to where their families were hiding.

A whole family was massacred in a flat at 10 Arëgalos street. Seriously wounded head of this family, Akiva Pukhert, metal craftsman in Kovno factory "Drobe", managed to write before his death in his own blood on a wall, "Revenge!" his body was found next to this inscription.

The hunt for Soviet people continued in the streets of the city. Captured people were delivered to Kovno prison under a strict guard, and later, when the prison became full - to the Seventh Fort ( one of the forts belonging to the former Kovno fortress). At the end of June about eight thousand men, women and children were gathered here. Women and children were kept under lock in underground cells. People were deprived of food and water; they were not allowed out even to relieve themselves. Both dead and living were lying together.

But people managed to resist even in those conditions. Aaron Vilenchuk and Gilel Mariner, who miraculously survived the terrible massacre in the Seventh Fort, remember several cases of people attacking armed guards with their bare hands.Famous Kovno doctor Boris Hodos ignored the order to stay down without moving and got up. He openly told the bloodthirsty animals in human disguise what they really were. "Your day of reckoning will come!"- he shouted at them. Boris Hodor called on his Jewish fellow- prisoners to resist the fascists. A guardsman opened fire and wounded the brave man. He was "allowed" to die in terrible agony.

Worker Haim Hendle, teacher Moishe Goldman and many others acted in a similar manner. On the first of July, those men who were still alive were shot dead. The fascists' main aim of killing Jewish old and young men during the first days - to weaken the force of possible resistance - was achieved to some extend.

All those events showed the true face of fascism and deeply angered the whole city. Lithuanian doctors Kutorgene, Staugaitis, Alekna, Kairiukshtis, woman-writer Bortkiavichene and others tried to persuade the invaders to stop Jewish pogroms. German leaders warned them against interference in this matter; if they showed compassion for Jews they would finish up sharing their fate.

Many Lithuanians took Jews into their flats thus saving them from executioners. Ionaitis, who lived in 16,Iurates street, hid in his house the persecuted during the worst days of massacre in Villiampole. He kept them there for a week and saved them from all dangers.

Father and son Boruchovich were near their place of execution by fire at a "shaulist house". Woman-worker Brone Lipskiene, wife of a communist, attacked the fascist who was taking them there. She shouted, "Murderers! Bloody dogs!" Risking her life, Brone Lipskiene, gave the two Jews an opportunity to escape.

Worker Stasis Iovaisha of Benedictine Nuns street ( now it is Pakalnes street) warned all passing Jews not to go to Villiampole when pogroms took place there. Iovaisha hid many people at his place and kept them hidden all the time while the massacre went on in the town. Lithuanian writer Kasis Binkis' house was turned into a real Jewish refuge. During the days of the gravest danger the persecuted found a shelter here. The Binkis family shared with them their remaining bread and clothing.

One can cite many more examples of help given to Jews by Russians, Lithuanians and Poles. This help is a living proof that friendship among various Soviet nationalities found its roots during the first year of the Soviet power in Lithuania.

III. IN THE GHETTO

On 10 July a new decree appeared in the streets of Kovno making it compulsory for all Jews to leave the city by 15 July 1941 and to resettle in designated for them quarters of suburb Villiampole.

In order to lure Jews to the designated quarters ( Hitler's officers did not use the word "ghetto" ) they stopped temporarily anti-Jewish acts. Nevertheless, the majority of the Jewish population was not in a hurry to move in there. They hoped that in a little while the old order would come back... And when they started fencing off the Jewish quarters with barbed wire and turning them into a ghetto, people were still convinced: before the fencing would be completed one would have a chance to dismantle it...

On the 26th of September Germans took over 1,000 people - men, women, children - from the ghetto and shot them in the 9th fort. They were accused of attacking a ghetto warden. From that day the 9th fort had become a mass grave for the Jewish population of Kovno. Pits 120-150 metres in length, three metres in width and two metres in depth lay ready to accept thousand of innocent victims. And not only Jews from Kovno ghetto - Lithuanians, Russians, Poles and also whole wagonfuls of people from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, France and other European countries (mainly of Jewish origin) were killed in the 9th fort.

As by that time selection of people for forced labour had become a norm, that demand did not cause either concern or suspicion. Yet,only few turned up at the gathering point. Hitler bandits set out to gather the required number of people. 534 people were captured. They were led out of the ghetto under heavy guard. No one from that group returned later home... (* It has become known now that they were shot in the 4th fort).

Among those "five hundred thirty four" killed people were the leader of the Lithuanian State Opera, violinist Robert Stender, famous film director Marek Martens, who had made a number of Jewish films in Poland, engineers Mordhai Klein and Daniel Goldberg, economists Lion Beliatskin and Shmuel Bloch, artist A.Kaplan, journalist Max Volfovich, sportsman Nojahc Blat, director of Kovno furniture factory Shimon Zimmerman and other representatives of Kovno Jewish intelligentsia.

IV. BEHIND BARBED WIRE.

The ghetto was finally fenced off from the rest of the world with the help of high lattice barbed wire and heavy guard. Germans declared territory of two metres on both sides of the barbed wire as a "dead zone". Guards were given an order to shoot without a warning anybody seen in that zone. All chances of meeting non-Jews, buying food from them, receiving medical and other help as well as getting information about the course of war became virtually nil.

Aleksas Miksha technica| shop foreman at rubber factory "Inkaras" - could not forget his former colleagues from work, who lived in dire need. He and his wife frequently came to the fence to pass on necessary things.

Like hungry animals they searched through the narrow winding streets of the old Villiampole and made people open doors and shutters of small bent wooden houses. Feeling still sleepy and tired, dressed in old rags,Jews dragged their aching bodies in the morning dusk. They went to the collection point at the ghetto gates in Arëgalos street. Here they formed groups which were sent to various places. Counted and formed into ranks of four (later also five), these groups under armed guard were taken to their place of work.

The biggest number of Jews were taken to do heavy manual work at Kovno airfield. Hungry and poorly dressed they dug ground, pushed trolleys, carried stones, bricks, iron in strong winds, severe frosts and heavy rain. Guards armed with rifles and supervisors armed with whips oversaw the work. Nevertheless, the work proceeded slowly and as soon as supervisors left their posts even for a short while, the Jews stopped working altogether.

The ghetto gates were always the most dangerous place there. Often brutal Germans killed people for little reason. They killed if numbers of those sent to work were insufficient or because a guard did not like the way Jews were passing through the gates. They even killed for no reason at all - by shooting into a crowd of people who simply happened to be there.

On the evening of 22nd of September one of the guards at the ghetto gates "greeted" with shots a group of people returning from work on the construction of a garage in Kiastutis street. The "occasion" was "Rosh Gashan" (Jewish New Year). Seven Jews were shot dead, one - Klugman, escapee from Warsaw - was buried alive.

Germans called their extermination of Jews from the ghetto "action". Actions in Kovno ghetto followed one after another. On 4th of October 1941 around 3 thousand people without work permits were arrested in the "little ghetto" ( a separate part of Kovno ghetto). They were sent in large groups to the 9th fort. Residents from an old people's home and orphans from a children's home were sent there by lorries too. During this action ghetto hospital with all the patients and medical staff still in it was burnt down.

Kovno ghetto residents remember the events of 28th of October as "the big action". On that day on gestapo orders all Jewish population were lead into Democrat Square for an "inspection of ghetto workforce". After a process of selection, which was accompanied by terrifying scenes, 11 thousand people were sent to the infamous 9th fort. Remaining people went to the empty ghetto streets not knowing what to do...

But in the very depths of the ghetto forces were growing which could see a way out.

V. RESISTANCE

The following text was taken from the above mentioned "struggle programme":

"...Jewish people together with all Soviet people are burning with desire to fight fascist murderers. There is already a basis for organising Jewish masses in their fight with the invaders in the ghetto. They simply need an organisation which is capable of preparing and leading people in an open fight with the enemy..."

The formation of the organisation began during the first days of the ghetto. It was done on the initiative of a number of communists and non-party bolsheviks who acted independently.

Communist Haim Yelin, young writer and former public activist in bourgeois Lithuania, lived in the ghetto in a flat at 18,Baioru street under the name of Haim Kadisson.

As a student at Kovno university Haim Yelin established links with underground activists. Haim Yelin performed various tasks on the orders of the banned Lithuanian Communist party: he gave speeches at various meetings, open debates, literary evenings, does underground work. In 1937 he was a delegate at the First World Jewish Congress of Culture in Paris.

Haim Yelin could not openly appear in the ghetto. Hitlerites sought him everywhere in Kovno. In order to avoid recognition Yelin grew beard and frequently wore a bandage across his cheek to give appearance of toothache. Outside his home he kept contacts only with his closest and most reliable friends.

Tireless Alta Boruchovich became group's secretary. She became also group's messenger. She would not be intimidated by the terror in the ghetto. From early morning till late at night she visited her friends in their houses; she knew all their needs. Alta Boruchovich used to find a way to help people before organized help could be arranged. She would get a pair of boots, mend clothing, help to get medicine or food.

The group organized a komsomol cell with Monia Golzberg as its secretary. An important point in the cell's existence was the appearance of a rather primitive radio, which was assembled by its members. This radio could receive only a local station but even from it it was obvious that Hitler's army was already experiencing difficulties in its war with the Soviet Union.

One more cell emerged in the ghetto around communists Mary Lan and Elia Shmuilova, secretary of Kovno city MOPR committee. Mary Lan, a long standing party member, introduced bolshevik principals to their work and passed on her underground work experience. Pesach Shater, Haia Shmuilova, Meilach-Leib Goldschmidt and others were active members of this group. They also supported friends and helped those pioneers who were without their parents, they also incited against carrying out German orders.

Haim Yelin established a link with Komsomol members, former Shalom Aleihem grammar school students. The first meeting between Yelin and Moishe Rubinson, secretary of the group took place in one of the ghetto streets.

It was arranged for Rubinson to approach a man dressed in a winter coat and a hat with its earflaps down and ask him the time. The answer had to be "a quarter to three". Rubinson met a passer-by who had an appearance of a peasant at the agreed spot.

The man was pacing the street to and fro. Rubinson hesitated whether to approach him. Then the passer-by - Haim Yelin - approached the young man and pretending to be mentally handicapped asked, "Is it not a quarter to three now?" The contact was made. Rubinson met Yelin, whom he had known since before the war, a few more times. However, Yelin so masterfully disguised himself that Rubinson was not sure who his contact was. Komsomol members received a plan of action and instructions on how to set up a circle.

Isolated in the ghetto members of separate resistance groups could not know yet that there were headquarters of Lithuanian partisan movement headed by Antanas Snechkus, first secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party. This body organized resistance of the population against fascist occupiers. The appeal of October 10, 1941 by the headquarters to the Lithuanian population stated,

"Resist the occupation authorities any way you can, harm them, make it more difficult for them to carry out military operations against the Soviet Union! Set up committees to fight the invaders, attack German military bases and headquarters, damage their transport, hinder its movement, damage telephone and telegraph poles, burn bridges, derail their trains. Destroy, blow up and burn depots and food storehouses of the German army, join the partisans. Give every help to the partisans!

Communists of Lithuania! Be in the forefront of the struggle against the invaders! Give leadership to the masses in their fight against the enemy! May Lithuanian soil burn under the feet of the German occupiers! The victory will be ours!" The leadership of the ghetto resistance movement understood that their main task was establishing contacts and links with the city party organization. A number of courages attempts were made to achieve the aim...

Every minute outside ghetto compound represented a deadly danger to a Jew. But this did not frighten those whose goal was to devote his life to struggle and if needed to sacrifice his life.

Later such links between those groups and separate individuals were established. A basis for a broad military organization headed by communists was set up.

IV.WE ARE PARTISANS

December 31, 1941. It was nearly 8 o'clock. Biting frost. Darkness reigned in the ghetto streets. Only high snow hills looked white in the narrow, interlaced streets of the old town.

Ghetto streets seemed to be deserted. People were allowed to walk in the streets until 8 pm but as soon as darkness fell people did not dare to leave homes. The ghetto plunged into blackness. At times the silence was broken by the sound of shooting. In that darkness lonely figures minced along the streets. They moved in various directions and at certain intervals, but their paths lead them to one place - a small house at the back of a large snow covered courtyard. Two people guarded it by the entrance in the shadow of the fence. Those guys had to meet their guests and to guard illegal gathering which took place in their small flat.

All arrived on time. People sat or stood up in a very small space. Even seriously ill Moishe Sherman could not stay at home that evening; he overcame his illness and got there. All participants arrived but the meeting did not start. Some kind of worried look could be seen on people's faces. It was the third day since Haim Yelin had arrived in the town.He promised to come in order to participate in the first general meeting of the leaders of antifascist ghetto groups. Had any harm come to him? The clock indicated eight o'clock and no walking in the streets was permitted... All were waiting for Haim Yelin to bring latest news from the town and no one was inclined to start the discussion of the agenda without him. The meeting was to set up a united antifascist ghetto organization and draw out an action plan.

Suddenly the door opened and a young tidily dressed peasant of average height squeezed through the door. He took off his fur hat, lowered the high collar of his short fur coat and the gathered recognized Haim Yelin, who had died his hair white and grown long moustache which was pointing up. Yelin had just managed to get through the ghetto fence. The gathered drew a sigh of relief. Smiles appeared on their pale faces.

The meeting started. A unanimous decision was reached - all resistance units joined into one organization. It was necessary to work out an action plan and the rules of the organization, to establish the direction for further action.

A decision was made to continue searching for links with Kovno city Communist party organization and to begin the fight against fascist occupiers under its leadership. They discussed the aims of the movement. Haim Yelin formulated those aims briefly but sufficiently clearly:

- We lived only a year under the Soviet rule. But we remain Soviet citizens! We will not leave the ghetto to its fate, but our main aim is armed struggle among partisans. A member of our organization is a partisan!

The gathered listened to those words with inspiration. "We are partisans!" - This sounds great!

"We are partisans!" - members of the meeting joined in saying those words and took them to all antifascist movement cells.

[Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8]
Sources:
Chaim Bargman: translator Yiddish-Russian (L) with Robin O'Neil: translator Russian - English. Kaunas, Lithuania 2007

ChaimBargman-translator-Yiddish-Russian
Robin O`Neil, MA (1996)--translator Russian-English

OGhIS State Publishing House "Der Emes", Moscow 1948

(photos: GFH, USHMM, & Private Collections)

Copyright H.E.A.R.T 2008 [Page design by Carmelo Lisciotto]

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The Gelpernus Diary - Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto -Revolt & Resistance www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto Chaim Yelin & Dimitri-Ghelpernus - Dimitri-Ghelpernus Author Part 1 "In the Ghetto Grip" I. AMONG THE RUINS When at the beginning of August 1944 Kovno was liberated from the fascist invaders, partisan groups entered the city together with Soviet Army detachments.

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"People! We are locked up like animals here. For seven days we had been hiding from our executioners in the loft without water, in terrible heat. Then we were attacked with grenades and our house was set on fire. We managed to escape into the cellar. A great number of people in the house have already perished. Their only fault was that their origins did not meet with the approval of the racist scum, who have acquired the guise of Hitler fascists. Comrades! Revenge us!” (From Gershel’s Diary.)

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Konvo Resistance Group
Red Army

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They helped save the lives of 34 people and give most of them a chance to live.

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The partisans fight back against the Nazi and store weapons for the fighters to continue to fight.

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Took place in Lithuania slightly after the destruction of Villiampole beginning on October 1,1941

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Konvo resistance member is retrieving weapons left people.

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Konvo resistance member is retrieving weapons left people.

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a member of the Kovno ghetto underground hides supplies in a well used as the entrance to a hiding place in the ghetto 1942

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"Resist the occupation authorities any way you can, harm them, make it more difficult for them to carry out military operations against the Soviet Union! Set up committees to fight the invaders, attack German military bases and headquarters, damage their transport, hinder its movement, damage telephone and telegraph poles, burn bridges, derail their trains. Destroy, blow up and burn depots and food storehouses of the German army, join the partisans. Give every help to the partisans!” (Lithuanian Populuation)

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The Kovno Ghetto Jewish Council during the war. Chairman Elkes is seated third from left

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Chaim Yelen was is a fighter who used to live undercover in a ghetto when he got involved in the war as a fighter he had to grow a beard to change his identity since not only were the Nazi chasing him but hilterites because he wrote things in the newspaper about how the fighters are so courageous and strong.

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This is where all the information for part 2 comes from.

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Chaim Yelin & Dimitri-Ghelpernus Part III IV BOLSHEVIK'S WORD

In February 1942 a five-lamp radio was installed into a shelter at 18,Vejeiu street. The entrance to it was masterfully concealed as an oven door. Considerable difficulties were involved in obtaining the radio. Great risk was involved in smuggling it through the ghetto fence. Death penalty was the punishment for any Jew caught using a radio, and discovery of it could lead to many people losing their lives.

The radio was linked to electricity supplies outside ghetto; a special moment was needed to make it work. During those moments a duty person put on his earphones and listened to close to his heart voice of a Moscow radio announcer which came from a long distance. Organization's committee informed all members daily of the most important events heard on Moscow broadcasts and arranged weekly bulletins which were copied and distributed to all cells. Articles on important issues for the organization were distributed at the same time. Two copies of leaflets were sent to the archive. Part of that archive was saved and now is kept in the State Archive of Lithuanian SSR in Vilnius.

Reading of books was forbidden in Kovno ghetto. On February, 27 1942 civil servants from "Rosenberg's headquarters" undertook "a book action". Agitators of the organization appealed to everyone not to give any printed material to Germans. Members of the organization and individual brave hearts hid books and saved many cultural valuables from destruction. In Kovno Germans liquidated public libraries and took materials from there to various storehouses and basements.

Germans used Jewish labour to do the work. The organization sent its members there who brought back to the ghetto many valuable books and mainly political literature by hiding it underneath their clothes. There were several histories of the communist party in Jewish and Russian.

The organization collected and then set up a whole section of Marxist-Leninist literature. Every member had a right to use the library via his cell secretary. In order to increase political awareness and to arm them with Marxist-Leninist science a short course on party history was read in each cell.

Ghetto residents were eager to hear a word of truth about heroic struggle of the Soviet army, about its victories, about the struggle of Soviet peoples against the invaders. The organization set a broader aim for its work than simply work with resistance fighters. The following comes from paragraph 4 of the "military programme":

"While wishing to fight our enemy openly we must not forget that the larger is the number of our friends, that the better these friends are prepared politically and militarily, the more we will be able to do, the higher our chances of success. There is no way for us to develop into a mass organization due to the difficult conditions in which we live. The following task arises from the above: without directly involving the masses into our organization we must prepare them psychologically and bring them up in a manner which would involve them into the fight against the invaders."

The organization hoped to achieve this aim via mass political agitation. Every member of the organization had to influence people with whom he worked and lived. He had to pass on news of the Soviet army, explain the aims of fascists' regarding the Jewish people in general and ghetto residents in particular, disclose German plans of genocide of different nations and especially the peoples of the Soviet Union.

Members of the organization quickly distributed among ghetto residents latest news from the front and orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief... Germans were surprised and perturbed: how ghetto residents could be so well informed when they lived in complete isolation from the rest of the outside world. A decree was passed -" Jews are forbidden to hold political discussions! People passing on political news face death!"

"We don't care a damn!"- these words became popular in the ghetto and political news continued to be passed from person to person with even greater enthusiasm.

Many people found a way to join the partisan movement and became brave fighters thanks to political work of the organization. It will be enough to mention Shmuel Martkovsky, Avram Faershtein, Jankel Kava, Jasha Broin. A circle close to the organization - the so-called "periphery" of the movement was formed from the masses. At times secret lectures on political, scientific and literary topics within the framework of political work among masses took place.

Special care was given to children who were left without parents. Children over 12 years of age were made to report for work by Germans. Their education was forbidden. Teachers Sonia and Shmuel Rosenthal with the help from teacher Esrachovich and comrades Leia Sher and Mania Barenblat set up and headed a secret primary school for the little ones.

Lessons took place in the ban of 101 Krikshtshiukaichio street. Light came from a hole in the roof. Instead of desks and chairs children used boxes. When a German went by the children quickly hid under boxes. An underground passage was dug out for an emergency.

Initially children were not involved in the underground work for conspiracy reasons. Later it became clear that thanks to their boundless loyalty and bravery of many of them could be of great use to the common cause. It was vital to change the difficult ghetto life for children and fill it with substance, hope for liberation. Pioneer groups were formed with Sheina Vechter, Leiser Silber and Pesia Karnovskaia at the head where they systematically educated children and inspired then with ideas of struggle.

Frequently it was dangerous for able-bodied people to walk through the ghetto during day time. On such occasions contacts were kept with the help of pioneers who did a wonderful job. Names of Taibele Leibes, Haim Kulvianski, Elia Lurie, Mark Moses, Haim Suraskin, Ilia Bloch - masters of providing contacts and avoiding Germans, brave collectors of necessary for the organization means -will always remain in our memory. Children got medicine and means of communication badly needed by the partisans as if from nowhere.

When the organization needed some disguises the little ones provided shoulder straps, ribbons and Nazi badges for German uniforms. Often those children wanted to perform bigger tasks. They wanted to perform dangerous missions. Once during mass round-ups in the city when it was dangerous for a grown up to leave home the organization was to receive arms near the railway station, as pre-planned (from comrade Mustekis). Pioneer Benzion Leibes got through the ghetto fence to warn of a change in the plan. He fulfilled his mission to the letter. Though one admired even more children's ability to keep secrets...

The organization got hold of a photographic camera. With its help many scenes from the life in the ghetto, and German barbaric treatment of Jews were secretly shot on film. Executions of Jews were also shot - in the case of Mek and others. Carefully prepared material with necessary explanations was sent from the ghetto to the partisan headquarters in Rudnizky forest.
V. CLASS CONTRADICTIONS IN THE GHETTO
As it has been mentioned above "a council of elders" was set up in the ghetto from the very start. With time Jewish administration in the ghetto had developed and grown. Apart from "council of elders" there were also "Jewish police", "Jewish labour exchange", "accommodation bureau", "ghetto court of justice", other bodies with branches, managers, assistant managers, assistants, inspectors...

Ghetto administration was responsible for assigning people to do a particular job, temporary release from work, sending people to labour camps out of Kovno, etc. By bribing guards Jewish police were able to arrange for people to pass through the ghetto gates without a check of their clothes or belongings. Managers from the Jewish administration sometimes succeeded in hushing up cases of people braking "Jewish laws" thus preventing them from being passed on to a higher authority. In addition employees of ghetto administration could learn about German plans regarding ghetto itself and other information.

The majority of the Jewish ghetto administration were officials from bourgeois Lithuania: former industrialists, well-known businessmen, religious leaders - remnants of the former exploiters. These people often used the situation to their advantage. They stole food meant for ghetto residents and had an easy life - they drank, had good time, indulged in lewdness. While the masses toiled in forced labour under inhumane laws newly-appointed bosses were idle, they dressed in expensive clothes, arranged light or profitable work for their protégé. They sent poor workers to forced labour outside Kovno.

But there were also those people in the ghetto who believed that their work had to be in the interests of incarcerated Jews and refused to profit from their positions. One of them was chairman of the council of elders doctor Elkes who on numerous occasions acted courageously in his dealings with Germans : both during actions ("big action" and others), and also during the liquidation of the ghetto. However, people like Elkes did not understand that by carrying out invaders' orders they were also serving them.

Yet people like Elkes were exceptional. Unprincipled carrier-makers made up a majority in the ghetto administration, like, for example, Avram Golub - secretary of the council of elders who were leading a sumptuous life style at the expense of Jewish suffering...

Benia Lipzer, Gestapo agent, played a special role among ghetto bosses. Having started his working career as a repairman of electrical equipment in Kovno Gestapo Lipzer reached a position of power which allowed him to sign his orders to the ghetto residents as "SD representative" (Gestapo).

With his masters agreement Lipzer set up an office for himself where he received visitors on Sundays, resolved complaints against Jewish administration... He also observed the activities of the council of elders which Gestapo mistrusted as they saw it as a body representing Jewish interests and playing a dual role.

The military section of the organization made it their goal to use possibilities arising from ghetto administration in the interests of the resistance movement and not of a few chosen ones. It was decided that members of the organization should participate in the work of the Jewish administration.

True it was not possible for them to become bosses but strongman Haim-Dovid Ratner was honoured with a white strip with a blue star of David and a Jewish policeman's cap as he met all the necessary requirements. Gradually other members of the organization found jobs in various Jewish bodies (police and labour exchange). Members of the organization who served in the police helped to smuggle weapons and to get over wire fencing, guarded bunkers where military training took place.

At night during curfew such policemen under a disguise accompanied members of the organization delivering weapons, setting up bunkers, warning off forthcoming mobilization for forced labour outside town.

Members of the organization working in the labour exchange arranged for their fellow-fighters to be sent to places where they could be useful for the organization. On the organization's instructions such comrades obtained work releases for the members, removed files of the underground fighters who left the ghetto. Thanks to this act those who had left were not missed and their families went un-persecuted...

Reliable individuals appeared among ghetto administration personnel who worked in the interests of the resistance movement. Such people performed various tasks: sent people to work in accordance with the organization's wishes, helped to pass the gates unchecked, created opportunities for smuggling weapons. Sometimes they rescued resistance fighters from guards. They supplied them with false papers from the administration, enabled them to leave for the forest and most importantly helped to pass through the ghetto gates: for both individuals and whole groups.

We consider it necessary to mention those administration employees who helped the organization most - these are Moishe Levin, Judl Zupovich, Aisik Grinberg, Aisik Srebnizky, Girsh Levin. Moishe Levin who for a long time headed the work of the ghetto police carried out such operations which were requested by the organization. He paid for it with his life later.

Through their friends in the ghetto administration a special sector of the organization received information which allowed the members to predict future German moves in the ghetto and not to be caught unprepared. It was possible to make a list of the ghetto residents working for the Gestapo and people working for other German organizations. They obtained valuable financial and economic information. The gathered information was passed to the city by the underground leaders. A special sector had also the task of safeguarding the organization from betrayal and provocation.
VI. DEFENCE PLAN FOR THE GHETTO
More and more new groups joined the organization. The foundations widened. There were young people who without finding a way for joining it set up more or less sizeable groups on their own. The organization looked out for such groups and tried to involve them in their work, to raise their political awareness and prepare them for independent work.

Various bourgeois parties that had operated previously in the old Lithuania renewed their activity in the ghetto underground. For a long time their leadership concentrated on cultural work with the members. In practice they limited their work to making use of the ghetto administration in their own interests only.

It was not difficult to achieve as the majority of the administration either belonged to those parties or sympathized with them. Even the most radical of those groups believed that defending themselves or dying "honourably" was their contribution to resistance movement. The leadership of those groups, however, put real efforts into building bunkers in the ghetto where "their" people could get through the difficult times. They advocated keeping calm and order in the ghetto.

Ghetto resistance movement fought against such false and faulty attitudes and exposed them.The leadership of various groups influenced by events and under pressure from their members had to start solving daily issues - such as firstly, establishing contacts with antifascist movement whose influence was constantly rising and its active and organized struggle against the invaders was becoming more obvious and it inspired masses to joining the struggle.

Some leaders expressed their readiness to cooperate with the military branch of the anti-fascist organization. The Council for cooperation was set up with this aim. Later a military- technical committee - so-called "VTK" was set up, whose role was to oversee weapons acquisition. Unfortunately, the VTK activity did not last. The burden of this work fell solely on the military organization. Under its guardianship partisan membership increased thanks to people from other groups like Moishe Zalinger (a partisan leader who died heroically in a fight), Aba Diskant (he later join Komsomol), Jankel Kava, Faershtein and others.

Many people joined from group "SORG" ("CARE") which was headed by Moishe Milner, Shloime Broer and Ovsei Taraseisky. They saw their main aim the defence of the ghetto in case of a German attack or ghetto liquidation. Initially they did not aim at partisan work which is clear from the group's name; "self-defence organization".

Seeing their main task in organizing struggle outside ghetto -setting up partisan groups and taking them to the forest - the organization did not neglect their responsibility of defending the ghetto. In case of an attack on the ghetto the organization was preparing to resist courageously and to call on all residents not to give up their lives without a fight.

The committee prepared a detailed "military plan" for the ghetto defence. A part of it was found among saved organization's archives. "The military plan" analyzed possibility of an enemy's attack and pre-planned its reaction in various cases. There was a detailed plan for the ghetto residents mobilization. According to it the ghetto was divided into eight parts. Two gathering points were assigned to each. One was for rank and file residents and the second - secret one - for district's headquarters. The plan for mobilization also assigned responsibilities to named individuals who had to head those gathering points after an alarm was raised.

As there was a comparative shortage of arms in the ghetto, a large number of knives and axes were planned for manufacturing which then had to be distributed. It was planned for the armed ghetto residents to start a fight with the main German forces to divert their attention and to create a chance for other Jews to break through the wire fencing. An important role had to be played by a group of people whose task was to set fire in many places and cause havoc. Fire was to be started with pre-prepared petrol bottles.

Another important task was attacking ghetto guards' office. This had a dual aim of undermining main German forces and acquiring more weapons for the uprising. The primary goal was holding off for as long as possible in the tightest corner of the ghetto: so-called "bottle neck" (by the cemetery in Krickshchiukaichio street) in order to link the two parts of the ghetto.

Next shake up of the ghetto was expected in the summer of 1943. Because of that the organization committee issued an order, a part of which is given below:

"Very confidential! Committee memo to all group leaders and secretaries! Dear group leaders and secretaries! Days important for our future are getting nearer. Fascist beasts threaten to annihilate us. They try to achieve this by various means. We received a signal from our Lithuanian friends who cooperate in our fight against fascist tyranny. The signal warns us to be prepared - in the near future we can expect excesses in the ghetto.

There are other factors why we should be vigilant:

Critical situation at the front adds to it.

All above mentioned factors make us to take some precautions and to prepare for mobilization. We consider the following actions by the enemy as a possibility.

To avert any possible enemy action all organized comrades are expected:
1) Be prepared for an open fight with the enemy. 2) Be especially precise and aware in carrying out their responsibilities. 3) To have at hand at all times steel weapons and home-made primitive weapons (axes, hammers, long-blade knives, crow-bars, etc.). 4) To build new bunkers and to finish old ones as soon as possible. 5) To strengthen links between cells and groups. Sources:
Chaim Bargman: translator Yiddish-Russian (L) with Robin O'Neil: translator Russian - English. Kaunas, Lithuania 2007

ChaimBargman-translator-Yiddish-Russian
Robin O`Neil, MA (1996)--translator Russian-English

OGhIS State Publishing House "Der Emes", Moscow 1948

(photos: GFH, USHMM, & Private Collections)

Copyright H.E.A.R.T 2008 [Page design by Carmelo Lisciotto]

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The Gelpernus Diary - Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto -Revolt & Resistance www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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Chaim Yelin & Dimitri-Ghelpernus Part III IV BOLSHEVIK'S WORD In February 1942 a five-lamp radio was installed into a shelter at 18,Vejeiu street. The entrance to it was masterfully concealed as an oven door. Considerable difficulties were involved in obtaining the radio. Great risk was involved in smuggling it through the ghetto fence.

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The Nazi standing guard in the Konvo Ghetto Gates

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In this ghetto the Jews were forced to labor without even the chance of any education reading books was forbidden in this ghetto; some of the resistance members who were kind hearted and brave decided to bring some book and poems/literature and sometime they were mostly educational.

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Three Jewish ghetto officials stand at one of the gates to the Kovno ghetto

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As the Jews continue to help each other by warning them or giving them or their children useful materials and telling them about political news if they do not know. Later on though the Nazi made a rule that no political discussions shall take place or you would be accountable of the death penalty. But the people of the ghetto have had enough and decided to revolt in which they said "We don't care a damn!" in which this phrase became popular in the ghetto and encouraged people to break the rules and help each other more enthustiastically.

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As of after the revolt people began to find much more ways to join the partisans and help. Children who were left orphans were taken by the Nazi and treated till age 12 in which they were made to report to work for the Germans and unfortunately their education was forbidden but thankfully some teachers (Teachers Sonia and Shmuel Rosenthal with the help from teacher Esrachovich and comrades Leia Sher and Mania Barenblat) managed to build a little secret primary school for the kids. Lessons took place on 101 Krikshtshiukaichio Street light came in from hole in roof the conditions were not so nice instead of desks there were boxes if a German came by the children were immediately ordered to stay in boxes and stay still and there was an emergency tunnel in case the Germans attack.

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This is a picture of 101 Krikshtshiukaichio where the little secret primary school was located.

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View of Krisciukaicio Street in the Kovno ghetto

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Quote from fighter during fight against Nazi in Konvo Ghetto

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Quote from fighter during fight against Nazi in Konvo Ghetto

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Comrades! Do not succumb to panic!Evaluate the existing situation with a clear head and calmly.Comrades! Be ready to resist the enemy.Long live red partisans - people's army of avengers!Long live the invincible Red Army!