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Abba Kovner | Historical Figures of the Holocaust

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Abba Kovner | Historical Figures of the Holocaust

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This video presents a brief overview of the activity of Abba Kovner, commander on the underground and partisans in the Vilna area, a founder of the "Habricha" postwar emigration movement, poet, author and cultural and public figure in Israel

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Abba Kovner | Historical Figures of the Holocaust | Yad Vashem

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Abba Kovner was born on March 14, 1918 in the city of Sevastopol and died on September 25, 1987 in Ein HaHoresh, Israel at the age of 69 due to cancer. Living at the time of the holocaust, Kovner played many roles that helped the Jews at the time. Abba Kovner, a symbol of hope in the darkness of the Holocaust, passed away, leaving behind a legacy of courage and resilience, forever shaped by the horrors he endured and the lives he tried to protect.

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Pictured left to right are, Rozka Korczak-Maria, Abba Kovner and Vitka Kempner-Kovner, members of the Jewish Resistance in Poland, pictured the liberation of Vilna in July 1944. The resistance group would fight against the Nazis and save the lives of the Jewish.

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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.

-Abba Kovner

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Abba Kovner used his literary talents to capture and preserve the moments of the Holocaust so that future generations would remember the Jewish and how they spent their last breath. His poetry explains what time was like back then; how cruel it was, and Abba Kovner made sure that the struggles of many victims would never be forgotten, but honored. Smuggling in goods such as food gave the victims of the Holocaust the hope of at least one minute to live. Not a day, but a minute due to how Hitler was acting. Organizing events of his resistance group helped keep everyone on his side safe until the Nazis came. Abba Kovner wrote history in his poems with the talent he was gifted.

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Abba Kovner's mission during the Holocaust was to resist the Nazis and their persecution of Jews. He worked tirelessly to organize and lead Jewish resistance groups, such as the Vilna Ghetto uprising, and he also played a role in forming Jewish partisan groups in Eastern Europe's forests. Kovner was deeply committed to protecting his fellow Jews and documenting the cruelity they faced, driven by a strong sense of duty to his people and a determination to fight against Hitler and his army.

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“Hitler is plotting to destroy all European Jews. Lithuanians Jews will be the first in line. Let us not be led like sheep to the slaughterhouse. It is right, we are weak and without defense, but the only answer to the enemy is resistance!”

This was said by Abba Kovner when he was having a meeting with his resistance group. His group must not die as cowards, but instead as heroes or a different title, even though they are weak.

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For more information about the Jewish partisan leader, poet, and activist visit: 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.