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The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was the one of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius during the Holocaust in World War II. During roughly 2 years of its existence, starvation, disease, street executions, maltreatment and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps reduced the population of the ghetto from an estimated 30,000 to zero. Only several hundred people managed to survive, mostly by hiding in the forests surrounding the town or sheltered in the city by the Polish underground. For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ...
A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background live as a group in seclusion, voluntarily or involuntarily. ...
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...
Location Ethnographic region Aukštaitija County Vilnius County Municipality Geographic coordinate system Number of elderates 20 General Information Capital of Lithuania Vilnius County Vilnius city municipality Vilnius district municipality Population About 600,000 in 2006 (1st) First mentioned 1323 Granted city rights 1387 Not to be confused with Vilnius city...
“Shoah†redirects here. ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
A female child during the Nigerian-Biafran war of the late 1960s, shown suffering the effects of severe hunger and malnutrition. ...
The term disease refers to an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs function. ...
It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ...
Extermination camps were one type of facility that the Nazis built before and during World War II for the systematic murder of millions of people in what has become known as The Holocaust. ...
A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background live as a group in seclusion, voluntarily or involuntarily. ...
Polish Secret State (also known as Polish Underground State; Polish Polskie Państwo Podziemne) is a term coined by Jan Karski in his book Story of a Secret State; it is used to refer to all underground resistance organizations in Poland during World War II, both military and civilian. ...
General history German troops entered the city on June 24, 1941. Over the course of the summer, troops killed more than 57,000 Jews living in Vilnius in a rapid extermination program. On September 6 and 7, 1941, the Nazis herded the remaining 20,000 Jews into the parameters of two ghettos. Converts, "half-Jews" and spouses of Jews were also forced into the ghetto. This occurred 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 of Poles formed to watch the Jews march into the ghetto. June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 190 days remaining. ...
For the movie, see 1941 (film). ...
is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
National Socialism redirects here. ...
September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The area designated for the ghetto was the old Jewish quarter in the centre 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 Vilnius Ghetto was created to dehumanize the people, as well as to exploit cheap labour from its inhabitants. Conditions were extremely crowded and people were surrounded by unsanitary conditions, disease and death. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
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. is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; October 7, 1900–May 23, 1945) was the commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany by being second in power to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy. ...
September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ...
Paneriai (Polish: , German: ) is a suburb of Vilnius, situated about 10 kilometres away from the city centre. ...
A death camp is either a concentration camp, the important (though not necessarily single) function of which is to facilitate mass murder of the people deported into such a camp (such as the Nazis Auschwitz and Majdanek, which acquired their murderous functions only some time after they had been...
A small remnant of Jews remained after the liquidation of the Vilnius 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 Vilnius. HKP camp on Subocz Street circa 1944 HKP 562 Slave Labor Camp located on Subocz Street in Vilna Poland, was the site of an unusual glimmer of humanity during the dark days of the Holocaust. ...
Karl Plagge Major Karl Plagge (July 10, 1897, in Darmstadt–July 1957 in Darmstadt) was a German officer and Nazi Party member who during World War II hired some 1,200 Jews—500 men, and the rest women and children—for forced labor, thus preventing many of them from being...
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. The Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje (United Partisan Organization) was a Jewish resistance organization that took part in the Wilno ghetto uprising during World War II. The partisan organisation was established by Zionist partisans - their leaders were writer Abba Kovner and Yitzhak Witenberg. ...
January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...
Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ...
A bilingual poster in Romanian and Hungarian promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s. ...
This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...
A Bundist demonstration, 1917 The General Jewish Labour Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, in Yiddish the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland (אלגמײנער ײדישער ארבײטרסבונ...
Abba Kovner Abba Kovner (1918-1987) was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. ...
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. Judenrats, German for Jewish council, were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in each ghetto in General Government (the Nazi-occupied teritory of Poland) and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. ...
This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...
Lebanese Kataeb militia A Militia is an organization of citizens to provide defense, emergency or paramilitary service, or those engaged in such activity. ...
rEVOLVEr (2004) is the fourth studio album release by Swedish thrash metal band The Haunted. ...
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. Yitskhok Rudashevski (1927 - 1943) was a young Jewish teenager who lived in the Vilna Ghetto during the 1940s. ...
Paneriai (Polish: , German: ) is a suburb of Vilnius, situated about 10 kilometres away from the city centre. ...
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. Image File history File links Wilna2_tn. ...
Image File history File links Wilna2_tn. ...
Pictures of the Ghetto Image File history File links Vilna1. ...
Image File history File links Vilna1. ...
Image File history File links Vilna4. ...
Image File history File links Vilna4. ...
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 Karl Plagge Major Karl Plagge (born July 10, 1897 in Darmstadt, died July 1957 in Darmstadt) was a German officer and Nazi Party member, who during World War II hired approximately 1,200 Jews — 500 men, and the rest women and children — to forced labor, thus preventing many of them...
HKP camp on Subocz Street circa 1944 HKP 562 Slave Labor Camp located on Subocz Street in Vilna Poland, was the site of an unusual glimmer of humanity during the dark days of the Holocaust. ...
The Wilno Uprising (also known as Operation Ostra Brama) was the armed struggle started by the Polish Home Army against the Nazi occupiers of Wilno (now Vilnius), during World War II. It started on July 7, 1944 as a part of a plan of all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest...
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