The tragic end — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

The “Stable Period” was interrupted in the Spring of 1943 with the Aktions which took place to liquidate the labor camps in the vicinity of Vilna as well as the small ghettoes, including the Kovno Aktion (named after the false destination given by the Germans) in which around 5,000 Jews from a number of villages were murdered at Ponar. Life in the ghetto went on but, in the summer, Jews who were deemed fit for work were sent to labor camps in Estonia and Latvia. In the first deportation, on 6^th August 1943, 825 men were deported to Estonia. Those who had remained behind in the ghetto feared for the lives of these men, but they arrived safely and this somewhat allayed those fears. There were about 1,400 people, including women and children, in the second deportation which started on 24^th August and continued for three days. They were assembled in Russia Square by the Jewish Police who were inflexible and cruel. The third deportation of about 3,000 men and 2,200 women was carried out on 1^st – 4^th September. Again, they were assembled in Russia Square. Initially, people were captured by the Germans, Estonians and Latvians but, following a struggle with the underground, this task was handed over to the Jewish Police, in line with the agreement between Gens and the government. The police were assisted by an ‘auxiliary police unit’ of thugs.

A total of about 7,400 men and women were sent to the camps in Estonia and Latvia.

During the tragic events of the liquidation of the ghetto, Yaacov Gens, the head of the Judenrat, was murdered on 14^th September. As far as the Gestapo was concerned, he was of no further use. His courageous stand has already been mentioned. In his diary, Gregori Schur writes: Just that morning, Gens had been warned that they were planning to assassinate him and he was advised to find some sort of a hiding place in the ghetto. But he said that his running away would bring about the liquidation of the whole ghetto, and that he had to go to the Gestapo. The Germans replaced him with a Jewish police officer, Salek Dessler, even though there were only a few days left before the ghetto was to be liquidated (he managed to escape with his family before the final liquidation).

For a number of days in mid-September, the workers in the vehicle workshops, the (H.K.P.-Heeres Kraftfahrpark), were transferred with their families to a labor camp which had been set up in Subocz Street which consisted of two large blocks that were already there and housed nearly 1,000 people. Workers and their families were also sent to the Kailis Camp, which had been set up in Vilna in 1941, in order to produce furs. The number of Jews here was also around 1,000. Together with another 150 people who had been transferred to two other small camps, they were the last to be approved for saving at this stage.

The more than 9,000 people who still remained in the ghetto were aware that the end of the battle was drawing near. Chaos broke out. People were desperate and broke into the Judenrat’s food and equipment warehouses – everything was out of control.

The ghetto was liquidated on Thursday, 23^rd September 1943. It had been surrounded by German and Ukranian solders from the early morning. The SS officer, Bruno Kittel, was in command of the liquidation. When addressing the public in the ghetto, he issued a false statement that the Jews were being transferred to camps in Estonia and Latvia, and that they should only take what was necessary. The ghetto residents were assembled in Russia Square, as with the previous deportations, but with a different fate: en route, there was a Selektion between the men and women, with 1,600 – 2,000 men being sent by train to Estonia. The women were assembled in the monastery yard in Rusa for a further two days, under terrible conditions. It was raining, they were hungry and thirsty, were beaten and harassed. In her Book of Memoirs, Irena Luski writes: “Rusa was hell… we had to stay standing the whole night long… the fear was unbelievably palpable since no one knew what was going to happen … the Germans and Lithuanians with dogs stood in long lines holding whips and shouting ‘right or left’ … everybody could go left but only those told to do so could go right … my mother was sent to the left and Tamara, my young sister, and I were went to the right. We left our mother and walked … and I still can’t forgive myself for this”. Following this terrible selektion, 1,400 – 1,700 able-bodied women were sent to the Kaiserwald Camp near Riga.

Altogether, 3,000 – 3,700 men and women were sent to Estonia and Latvia during the liquidation. A few hundred old people, children and the sick were sent to Paneriai and about 4,000 people to the extermination camp Sobibor. About 1,500 hid in bolt-holes and went on to join the partisans and infiltrated the HKP and Kailis camps.

The HKP and Kailis camps remained in operation almost until the liberation of the city by the Red Army on 13^th July 1944. On 27^th March, there was a ‘Children’s Aktion’ there and in the Kovno Ghetto, when hundreds of children were caught and murdered. The camps were liquidated on 3^rd July, and the inmates were amongst the last victims at Paneriai. On the last night, about 150 men from the HKP camp managed to break through the fence and escape. Another few hundred people also managed to escape but about 350 were discovered in their hide-outs and murdered on the spot.

Most of the Vilna Jews who were in the Estonian and Latvian camps perished on the spot or following misfortune, suffering and terror at other camps.

Of all the Vilna Jews, only a few thousand survived. Along with the terrible loss of life, Jewish property was also stolen and the cultural and spiritual assets, religion and tradition and the unique way of life in Vilna which had crystallized over hundreds of years and had become known throughout the Jewish world, were all shattered.