The
Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (Yiddish: פֿאַרײניקטע פּאַרטיזאַנער אָרגאַניזאַציע; "
United Partisan Organization"; referred to as
FPO by its Yiddish initials) was a
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
resistanceResistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
organization based in the
Vilna GhettoThe Vilna Ghetto, Wilno Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius, during the Holocaust in World War II...
that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The
partisanA partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements that opposed German rule in several countries during World War II .- History :As early as the...
organisation was established by Communist and Zionist partisans - their leaders were writer
Abba KovnerAbba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel...
and Yitzhak Witenberg.
The FPO 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 the first Jewish resistance organization that was established in the ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Unlike in other ghettos, where the underground resistance was coordinated to some extent with the officials of the local Jewish establishment, Vilna's 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.
However, the FPO did not succeed in its mission. In early 1943, the Germans caught a resistance member in the forest and the
JudenratJudenräte were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union...
, in response to German threats, gave Wittenberg over to the
GestapoThe was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning in April 1934, it was under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel under Heinrich Himmler in his position as leader of the SS and Chief of German Police...
. The FPO was able to rescue him through an armed struggle and were then able to set up a small
militiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
. 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
revolverA revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. As the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves to align the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel, which gives this type of firearm its name...
, 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.
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, where most were able to reach Soviet partisan units. FPO members participated in the liberation of Vilna by the Soviet army in July 1944.
See also
- Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, organizations, governments and individuals. Most major resistance movements during World War II were anti-fascist....
- Ghetto uprising
Ghetto uprisings were armed revolts by Jews and other groups incarcerated in German Nazi ghettos during World War II against the plans to deport the inhabitants to concentration and extermination camps....
- History of the Jews during World War II
World War II is known as one of the most tragic periods in Jewish history.-German Nazi occupied Europe:By World War II, nearly all Jewish companies had either collapsed under financial pressure and declining profits, or had been forced to sell out to the Nazi-German government as part of the...
- Jewish partisans
Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II....
- Jewish resistance movement
The Jewish resistance under Nazi rule was the resistance of the Jewish people against Nazi Germany leading up to and through World War II, including against the Holocaust. Due to the careful organization and overwhelming military might of the Nazi German State and its supporters, many Jews were...
- Resistance during World War II
Resistance during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
- Vilna Ghetto
The Vilna Ghetto, Wilno Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius, during the Holocaust in World War II...
Literature
- Yitzhak Arad
Yitzhak Arad is a Lithuanian-born Israeli historian and retired IDF brigadier general. A veteran of the Nazi-era Jewish resistance movement in ghetto; partisan and former member of the Jewish Bolshevik NKVD, he has researched, lectured, and published extensively on the Holocaust.-Early life and...
, Encyclopaedia of the HolocaustThe Encyclopedia of the Holocaust was published in 1990, in tandem Hebrew and English editions, by Yad Vashem , the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Authority....
vol. 2, pp. 470-472. Illustration.
External links