Avraham Keren-Paz (Karpinkas) — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Avraham Keren-Paz (Karpinkas) 1925- 2003

Avraham was born in Vilna to a traditional Zionist family. From an early age, he was an active member of the Betar movement. He attended the "Tarbut" Hebrew school system and the Hebrew Gymnasium.

In August 1940, when Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union, Avraham organized underground cells of the Betar movement that eventually integrated into the General Zionist underground - the National Military Organization in Israel.

In June 1941, after Vilna was occupied by the Germans, he was imprisoned in the local ghetto. On one occasion, he was abducted to forced labor and ordered by a German overseer to beat another Jew. Avraham refused and did not do so despite the murderous beatings he received from the German for disobeying his order.

Avraham's mother, Dora, and his sister Rachel, perished in Ponar; his father, Isaac, perished in Estonia.

While in the ghetto, he joined the anti-Nazi Jewish underground, the FPO. In September 1943, he left the ghetto in the company of an armed group toward the bases in the Narocz forests, where he joined the Markov Partisan Brigade and was annexed to the "SPETNAZ" (Soviet Special Forces).

Avraham took part in sabotage operations, in intelligence missions assigned to his group by the partisan headquarters in Moscow, and more than once came in a face-to-face armed conflict with the Nazi enemy.

In July 1944, after the area was liberated by the Soviet army, Avraham returned to Vilna and returned to work with the Zionist underground - this time with the aim of leaving soon for Eretz Israel. Together with his sister Rivka, Avraham left Vilna for Poland, and from there moved to Hungary and Italy. In Italy he was active in his movement and was appointed secretary of Hamored kibbutz training.

In December 1945, he left Italy at the head of his group and sailed to Israel on the illegal immigrant ship "Enzo Sereni." The ship was discovered by the British who imprisoned the illegal immigrants in the Atlit camp. After his release from the camp, he joined the Irgun. He was imprisoned by the British, exiled to Kenya, and returned to Israel with liberated Kenyan exiles on July 1948, exactly on the day of the Egyptian bombing of Tel Aviv.

In Israel, he was the principal of a school and devoted himself to educating the children of Israel for the love of the people and the land. He wrote, published and edited plays and pamphlets for students on the subject of the Land of Israel and the history of the Holocaust.

In addition, he engaged in extensive and voluntary public activities throughout the years: he was a member of the Likud Center, a member of the Givatayim City Council, of the Teachers' Union, the Jewish National Fund, and member of the partisan organization directorate and secretariat, a member of the Board of Yad Vashem, and member of the Commisssion for the Designation of the Righteous.

Avraham died in 2003, one week exactly after the bar mitzvah of his grandson Nitzan, whom he himself prepared for being called up to the reading of the Torah. He is survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren.

From: Partisans organization