Rudnicki Forest — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

The Rudnicki forest is a swampy area some twelve miles outside Vilnius city centre. The first partisans, mainly Russian soldiers or Communists arrived there in 1942 and set up base around an string of lodges that had once been a hunting camp.  In the days just prior to the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, small units of Jewish partisans slipped out through side gates or crawled through the sewers to reach the base, among them Abba Kovner and his group, known as "The Avengers." Eventually there would be some 300 Jewish partisans in the forest. They lived in underground bunkers, dug out of the earth,  each of which housed 100 fighters who slept side by side on wooden planks. There was a central bathroom, a makeshift 'hospital' and a commissary in the camp. Due to lack of food, the living conditions and the harsh weather, they suffered gum disease, flu, scurvy, lice, scabies, rickets, pneumonia and constant hunger. From their base, they set off daily to conduct high-risk sabotage missions, or to obtain weapons and food from local farmers.  In July 1944, Russian troops captured Vilna. Abba Kovner led his partisan unit home. Today, these forts are sinking slowly into the earth.

From: Holocaustlegacylithuania