The internal life in the Vilna ghetto — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Summery of Dr. Aharon Einat's thesis

This research deals with the Vilna Ghetto, and includes a review of the period prior to its establishment and a record of its post-destruction. It contributes to the awareness and understanding of both the individual and social aspect of the Jews in the ghetto who lived in conditions of extreme coercion and terror. Their way of life had changed drastically from the one they had been familiar with for hundreds of years, and in the ghetto they were under constant fear of death and daily dread of what awaited them, broken from the loss of their dear ones, degraded and depressed, suffering from a chronic lack of basic requirements and living in the most difficult cramped conditions. It may be assumed that in such situations each individual would fend for himself and his family and that chaos would reign in the ghetto, but the research reveals that in reality, the process was completely different – the ghetto did not sink into anarchy and life proceeded normally, with organized institutions, voluntary organizations to help the needy, and a well-developed system of education, culture, health and social services. A large portion of this study is devoted to matters concerning the daily life of the individual and his family – existential fears, the search for the “Schein”, finding food, hiding, mutual contact, the relationship to the Judenrat and the ghetto police, concern for health and personal hygiene, and the like – where the material is arranged according to topics and in chronological order, while keeping the “latitudinal connection” between them as far as possible. The ghetto adopted, whether consciously or unconsciously, the strategy of “Überleben” – survival, and both individuals and the Judenrat worked to achieve this aim. The will to live and the desire to survive were evident under the most severe circumstances, even before the execution pits of Ponar. In spite of the laws of suppression and terror inflicted by the Nazi regime, and despite the unbearable conditions, the “Vilna Ghetto spirit” came into being – a unique phenomenon that incorporated a special cultural life exceptional in its intensity, extent and degree of popularity among the inhabitants. It became an outstanding expression of the struggle of the Jews against the policy of the Nazi regime to put them to death by starvation, exhaustion, diseases and internecine warfare. The research attempts to focus on the characteristics and reasons for this development. The research also presents the active struggle of the ghetto against the Germans and their defrauding policy while showing the negative disclosures in the activities of the Jewish police and the Judenrat. It seemed apt to begin this summary with a short review of the course of events and changes that took place between times.

Vilna was highly regarded in the Jewish world, and was known by the unique name - “The Jerusalem of Lithuania”. The city boasted a well-developed spiritual life, and included a wide range of institutions for education and study, research centers (one being YIVO – the famous Institute for Jewish Research), several newspapers, a theater, an orchestra and a choir, famous authors, and so on. Apart from all these, the city was a comprehensive center for Torah study, especially for the “Mitnagdim” – “opponents” – the followers of the Vilna Ga’on (Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, 1720-1797). Vilna was the platform for the rivaling factions and philosophies – “Bund”, Communist, Zionist, Orthodox – and the language conflict between Yiddish and Hebrew. Nevertheless, in spite of the flourishing spiritual life and the well-developed cultural heritage, living conditions for the Jews of the city were difficult and many of them were poverty stricken, constantly searching for a livelihood, and supported by the welfare institutions established by the community and social agencies.

The Jews arrived in Vilna in the 16th century, when it belonged to the Polish Lithuanian kingdom. From the end of the 18th century until World War I, it was under the control of the Russian Czar. Following the Treaty of Versailles and the conflict between the USSR, Poland and Lithuania, it became part of Poland and the fate of its Jewish community was bound up with the Jews of that country, cut off from Lithuanian Jewry. During that period, the city went through a difficult period of economic slump and antisemitism. Between the outbreak of World War II and the German occupation, the city underwent a series of changes in regime – a short period under Soviet occupation, independent and democratic Lithuanian control (from the end of October 1939 till June 1940), then Soviet occupation once again. The Jewish community flourished tremendously under the Lithuanian regime. The new Soviet regime changed governmental priorities, banished the “bourgeoisie” to Siberia (including many Jews) thus creating uncertainty and fear. However, it did provide equal opportunities for all citizens, and enabled the Jews to integrate in governmental, municipal and academic positions, from which they had previously been barred. Vilna became the center for refugees from occupied Poland, among them leaders of political parties and youth movements: the majority (about 6,500 people) managed to leave for the West, while those who remained shared the fate of the local Jews. Among those who arrived in Vilna were also “Lithuanians” – Jews from ethnic Lithuania. On June 24th 1941, the German army occupied the city. At the time there were nearly 60,000 Jews out of a population of about 200,000. Almost from the start the German regime began carrying out orders restricting the lives of the Jews. They forced them to hand over their property, to wear the yellow star, to walk only on side roads ensuring they did not step on the sidewalks; all civil servants were dismissed from work; all their workshops were closed down; they were forbidden to learn or teach in schools and other institutions; Jews were used for forced labor with no remuneration; they were forbidden to buy in the shops, other than those few that were authorized, and so on. At first these orders were carried out by the military administration and from the beginning of August 1941 by the civil administration that replaced it. Vilna was classified as a District, headed by the Gebietskommissar, Hans Hingst, and in charge of dealing with Jews was Franz Murer, an individual who struck terror in their hearts. The SS system functioned simultaneously, dealing with Jewish genocide, among others. The decrees were issued rapidly, but gradually, and at each juncture the Jews of the city held on to the hope that the worst was over, until proven wrong by the next decree. All at once, during the months of July and August 1941, a number of mass murders took place, consistent with the German Policy of Jewish Genocide. These were carried out by the SS Einsatzkommandos 9 and 3, with the help of Lithuanian collaborators, both units and individuals. Jews were being murdered all over the occupied areas in the East, but never before in such a sudden and intensive way it took place in Vilna: some 5,000 men were abducted from their homes and the streets, under the pretext that they were being taken for work purposes, and only as time passed was the bitter truth revealed: they had been shot to death in the nearby Ponar woods. Thousands of families were left without fathers, sons or brothers. Jews were shot in their homes, in the fields and on the city streets. On September 6th 1941 the Jews of the city were crowded into two ghettos: – the large ghetto - No. 1, and the small ghetto - No. 2. The small ghetto existed for about 7 weeks until it was liquidated. The process of entering the ghetto took one day and was carried out without prior warning: the Germans and Lithuanians appeared at the homes of the Jews, demanding that they leave within half an hour. They were allowed to take with them only what they could carry, and the rest of their property was divided up between their Polish neighbors. A week earlier, a large “Aktion” (operation to round up Jews), called by the Jews “The Great Provocation”, had taken place in the streets reserved for the ghetto, in which about 5,000 Jews – men, women and children - were rounded up and taken to Ponar where they were shot dead. About 40,000 Jews were crowded into the area that had been cleared (the few Polish residents still remaining there were ordered to leave), cut off from the outside world. Yet in spite of all this, many people simply accepted the fact of the ghetto and considered it a safe haven from the attacks, abductions and looting to which they had been persistently exposed by the soldiers and police – both German and Lithuanian – and by the local citizens, especially the Lithuanians. The Jews of the ghetto found themselves living under a regime of intimidation and terror, in unbearable conditions, and as they were still attempting to cope with the situation and find a place to live and food to eat, a series of large Aktionen began, which were brutal and violent and in which thousands were murdered in Ponar. This constituted a terrible blow and hardly a family was left that did not have branches torn from it. The ghetto found itself bereft and in bitter despair over the loss of life and in the shadow of death, knowing the end was inevitable. The first Aktion took place on the day they entered the ghetto and the second 9 days later. In October there were further Aktionen, including the “Yom Kippur Aktion” (October 1st), the destruction of Ghetto No. 2 (October 21st) and the “Yellow Scheinen” (“Schein” – work permit). There were additional Aktionen on a smaller scale in November and December, including the “Gestapo Workers” and the “Pink Scheinen”. Following this dreadful period, there was a temporary respite from the mass Aktionen and the ghetto entered a period of relative calm (“The Stable Period”), that lasted about a year and a half. By then, some 35,000 people had been murdered, of these 15,000 prior to entering the ghetto and another 20,000 by the end of 1941. The 20,000 Vilna Jews who remained alive constituted the population of The Ghetto. The Germans made good use of the Jewish work force in their units and industries. Although remuneration was almost nil, the Jews sought work because it enabled them to receive work permits – Scheinen – which gave them and their families immunity from abduction, thus ensuring their survival. The allocation of Scheinen began before the ghetto period, but became of paramount importance mainly during its existence, and they were coveted by every Jew. At the start of the ghetto, the Germans issued 3,000 Scheinen (some were allocated to the Judenrat management and some to its employees, the Jewish police, etc.), thus legitimizing about 12,000 people. This number increased over time and even reached more than 15,000. The Schein was also the basis for receiving food rations, and because about one quarter of the ghetto inhabitants were “illegal”, they were ineligible and special steps had to be taken to enable them to survive. The Germans often replaced the Scheinen, their intention being to confuse the people and to oil the killing machine. So, a Schein that was good one day, was invalid the next, thus leaving its owner unprotected. At first the Scheinen were white (according to the color of the certificate); then they were replaced by yellow, pink and blue ones, “Ausweis” (work permit), red certificates, “personalized” certificates with the letter W (Weib) for women and M (Mann) for men, numbers on a metal tag, and so on. Different types were sometimes used simultaneously. In fear of their lives, the ghetto inhabitants prepared secret hiding places, known as malinas, which were to become an inseparable part of ghetto existence. The malina was vital to those who were illegal, but even those fortunate enough to hold a permit did not depend on them, and prepared their own malina just in case. The malinas were varied, from the simplest type (for example a room, the entrance of which was concealed by a cupboard) to the most sophisticated, equipped with sanitation, electricity, food, water, etc. There were small, family malinas, as well as those that could hide dozens of people. Not all the inhabitants were lucky enough to “belong” to a particular hideout; some remained without shelter and were usually the first victims of the Aktionen. Radical changes were taking place on the social level in the ghetto and the social pyramid was turned upside-down. Work became the dominant aspect, placing professional workers at the top of the social ladder, and with them those who became part of the staff of the Judenrat and the Jewish police. The previous elite, those engaged in finance and industry, the intelligentsia, the honorable members of the community, etc. – all lost their traditional places in society and became destitute. Members of the Judenrat and the department heads advanced to prominent positions (as described below) – the head of the ghetto, police officers and even ordinary policemen, the “Brigadeers” ( leaders of the work units), smugglers and “wholesalers” (the nouveau-riche of the ghetto), and so on. The “Lithuanians” and the refugees from Poland had become part of the social network, and held high-ranking positions in the Judenrat and the other various institutions. A conspicuous example of such a case is that of Yaakov Gens, the police officer and head of the ghetto from mid-1942 who came from Lithuania, and some department heads, such as provisions, labor, housing, and for a time deputy commander-in-chief of police (Yosef Glazman, who was one of the commanders of the Underground at the same time) – all of them from Lithuania, culture and library – from Poland, and others. This development resulted from the loss of a considerable part of the traditional Vilna leadership already during the first part of the occupation, together with their high personal status and the quick ability to adapt that characterized the refugees who had already experienced the Nazi regime and its terrors and had become very resourceful. The “Lithuanians” also had the advantage of knowing the Lithuanian language. The ghetto people unwillingly accepted “foreign domination”, but gradually became accustomed to it and began to work in cooperation.

The internal life of the Ghetto was run by the Judenrat, which was detached from the normal traditional leadership of the Jews of Vilna. Its members (apart from Milkanovitzky (Milkanowicki) who had formerly held the position of vice president of the Jewish Community Council), were all previously unknown to the Jewish public and had been chosen at random according to Murer’s order. Anatol Fried was appointed head of the Judenrat, and although its members were unqualified for public office, they were motivated and able to undertake different tasks, as was revealed as time went by. Fried appointed Yaakov Gens as chief of the Jewish police, which very soon became an independent entity and detached itself from the Judenrat. 10 months later the German authorities replaced Fried by Gens as head in charge of the ghetto. The Judenrat was forced to deal with the numerous tasks imperative to life in the ghetto, and day-to-day activities had to be carried out under the onus of the edicts and demands of the German authorities. Their public duties were carried out with great difficulty and under life-threatening conditions. The departments of the Judenrat were organized on a vocational basis, each dealing with a specific area. Thus, the general department coordinated all the other departments and supervised the work of the entire Judenrat; the health department, which was the largest one in the Judenrat, took care of sanitation, hygiene (including the removal of refuse and excrement), hospitalization, running the bathhouses and laundries, and medical inspection (also of the work camps in the vicinity). Its work was especially important on account of the poor physical conditions existing in the ghetto – the absence of a sewage system, defective water works, old and mildewed apartments full of lice and bed-bugs, overcrowding that could average 17 people to an apartment, where any disease was a potential epidemic. The housing department (which was later merged with the technical department) dealt with all aspects of housing the population and apartments for public institutions, including running the ghetto workshops, the number of which was steadily increasing. The supply department organized the provision of food to the ghetto and its distribution among the inhabitants, and maintained contact with the German Lithuanian authorities regarding the allocation of their food allowance. The labor department supplied the work force according to the demands of the German authorities, both men and women, thousands of whom went to work in plants and military units (“einheiten”) outside the ghetto. The social services department took care of the destitute, which meant mainly giving exemptions for compulsory payments (such as hospitalization or meals in the communal kitchens). The department for culture (and education) was in charge of the school system and the flourishing cultural life of the ghetto, including the theater, the symphony orchestra, the choirs and the library. Financial matters, including the cash box, was run by the finance department. The Jewish police force was a useful tool for carrying out the policies of the Judenrat. When Gens was in charge, it was run more or less independently. After Gens became the head of the Judenrat, he was replaced by Salek Dessler, who worked in cooperation with him, complying with his orders. The police fulfilled a dual function: on the one hand, preserving the peace as in any normal society, and on the other, taking part in Aktionen during which they would round up Jews, search for them in the malinas and concentrate them at the gate. The gate guard, together with both the German and Lithuanian policemen, supervised the passage of the thousands of Jews leaving and entering the ghetto daily, handled the inspections, often confiscating smuggled goods and administering punishment by beating or arresting the “guilty” ones. The duty and behavior of the policemen caused the people in the ghetto to despise them. Their attempts at self justification, such as the fact that they were only carrying out their orders, or “If we don’t do it, the Germans and the Lithuanians will, and that would be much worse” – were totally rejected by the ghetto inhabitants (see below Negative Disclosures in the Functioning of the Ghetto Police and the Judenrat). In the ghetto there existed a judicial system, which operated subject to the authority of the head of the Judenrat. Most of the court cases resulted from the desperate living conditions – disputes between neighbors, not abiding by the blackout orders, smuggling and theft. Punishment was usually given in the form of fines, and short prison sentences, usually in the ghetto prison. In June 1942, five people convicted of murder were tried in court: they were sentenced to death by public hanging, after which no more murders took place within the bounds of the ghetto.

Ghetto life was run using the “doctrine of survival by work”, formulated by Gens, who believed that the more useful the Jews were to the German authorities, the greater their chances of survival. With this perception in mind, untiring efforts were made to increase the ghetto work force, be it by employment on the outside, or from within the ghetto itself. And thus, by June of 1943 the number of workers had reached 14,000 and included almost the entire adult population, both men and women! As far as the Germans were concerned, this was a double achievement for them: their policy of Jewish genocide led not only to the loss of Jewish lives, but also brought them huge financial gains, both as a result of seizure of their property and ransom payments and from taking maximum advantage of the Jewish work force. More than 500 youngsters were active in an underground movement in the ghetto, which was composed of two groups. The main one was the FPO (Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye – United Partisan Organization), which had already been established at the beginning of 1942 and was composed of members of youth movements and political parties. Its headquarters included: Itzik (Yitzchak) Wittenberg, commander (Communist); Abba Kovner, his deputy and battalion commander (Hashomer Hatza’ir); Joseph Glazman, his other deputy and battalion commander (Beitar-Revisionists); Nissan Reznik (Hano’ar Hazioni) and Abrasha (Avraham) Chvoinik (“Bund”). It was properly organized, with a well entrenched ideology of armed resistance against the Nazis and uprising within the ghetto limits when liquidation was imminent, but only on condition that no harm came to the Jews, or even to the police during their searches. The FPO appeal “not to go like sheep to the slaughter” spread to the other ghettos and became a slogan of Jewish resistance. The second group was “Yechiel’s combat group”, led by Ilya (Yechiel) Scheinboim (Hechalutz Hatzair-Dror), was formed a few months after the FPO. Each person was accepted on an individual basis, whether he was a member in a youth movement or non-political. Their concept was based on fighting the Nazis outside the ghetto in the partisan forests. The two groups joined forces in the spring of 1943 and a united underground movement was formed,  which was unusual in the ghettos! The Underground and the Judenrat existed alongside one another: Gens did not consider it a threat to the Judenrat and Jewish police control, and did not prevent its activities, and the Underground on its part made no claim to being an alternative to the Judenrat nor to the running of life in the ghetto. The situation changed in the summer of 1943 when members of the Underground moved to the partisan forests, which Gens considered a threat to the very existence of the ghetto. Whereas in Kovna the Judenrat and the Jewish police were of the same mind as the underground movement, in Vilna a fierce dispute broke out between these two organizations. The general population was unaware of all the above-mentioned details, and the Underground did not feature in their daily life. It entered their consciousness in a traumatic way in July 1943, about two months before the liquidation of the ghetto, during the “Wittenberg Affair”. It happened when the SS, informed by external sources about Wittenberg’s underground activities, gave Gens an ultimatum, that unless Wittenberg was turned over to them, the ghetto would be liquidated. Gens confronted the inhabitants with the dilemma of one individual death as against the destruction of the entire ghetto. Faced with this tragic situation, the frightened community, struggling for what remained of their lives, stood resolutely by Gens and were bitterly opposed to the Underground and its leader. Because of the circumstances, and in fear of internecine war, the headquarters of the FPO decided that Wittenberg should turn himself in. He complied with this request and presented himself at the Gestapo offices. He was found dead the following day after having committed suicide. This dreadful episode made it clear to the Underground that the public was turning their back on them, and this ultimately changed the concept regarding fighting in the ghetto. From then on, combat groups allied themselves with partisans in the forests and continued fighting the Germans from there, especially after the ghetto had been liquidated. Following Himmler’s order in June 1943 to liquidate the ghettos in Ostland (Eastern Territories), the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto was becoming imminent (although even during the period of stability, various Aktionen were 12 carried out, such as that of the “Old People” in July 1942, the “Kovna Aktion” in April 1943, in which the Germans and their collaborators murdered some 5,000 Jews from the smaller towns, etc). The liquidation process was carried out in the Vilna Ghetto and its environs by, the SS officer, Bruno Kittel. In July, the work camps in the Vilna region were destroyed and their workers murdered. In August there were two Aktionen for the deportation of physically fit people from the ghetto to the camps in Estonia. Simultaneously, work for Jews outside the ghetto was brought to a halt, cutting them off completely with no channels left for obtaining food. At the beginning of September, the third deportation to Estonia and Latvia took place (during which Yechiel Scheinboim was killed in a battle with the Germans in the ghetto), this time including women. More than 7,000 people were deported in these three deportations. Two work camps remained active in Vilna: the first, Keilis, manufactured furs for the German army; it had already been established in October 1941 and 800-1,000 Jewish workers and their families lived there initially: the second, H.K.P. (Heeres Kraftfahrpark), the military vehicle maintenance services, was established in the first half of September 1943, close to the liquidation of the ghetto, populated too by about 1,000 people. The number of their inhabitants increased following the liquidation of the ghetto, with the arrival of the “illegals” who had managed to escape or hide temporarily in malinas. Another 150 people were transferred to two small camps, also within the city. During these days of terror a tragic event took place – Gens was murdered by the Gestapo. They explained that Gens had kept the existence of the underground movement from them, but it is more likely that they no longer required his services in light of the impending liquidation. Gens could have escaped into hiding, but preferred to relinquish his own personal safety for the sake of the people remaining in the ghetto and gave himself up to the Gestapo knowing full well that he would not return. Gens’ death was a blow to the ghetto which was left with neither a leader nor a pillar of support. With all the bitterness and anger the community felt towards the Judenrat and the police, it respected him as a leader who knew how to stand up to the demands of the Germans, and a person who gave them what they considered the opportunity to survive. It had now become evident to everyone that the days of the ghetto were numbered, and indeed the end came on Thursday 23rd September 1943. German and Ukranian soldiers surrounded the ghetto and the inhabitants were ordered to concentrate at an area near the Rosa Monastery. They were told that they were to be transferred to camps in Lithuania and Estonia, thus instilling hope into the hearts of the Jews. The march lasted all day, with the soldiers keeping strict order. On arrival, an abrupt selection process took place; the men were moved to the adjacent square and the women, children and elderly were packed into the courtyard and cemetery of the monastery. With their last ounces of strength families clung together and refused to separate. The Ukranians beat their victims violently with truncheons and rifle butts, and confiscated any valuables they found on them. On the following day the trains began to transport the men to camps in Estonia – altogether 1,600-2,000 persons. Those who remained in the monastery courtyard underwent a further selection: the young women were sent to one side and all the rest to the other. The people realized what was about to happen and panic broke loose. One of the survivors recalls: “Rosa was hell… we were on our feet all night…we were overwhelmed by fear … Germans and Lithuanians with their dogs were standing in long lines indicating right and left with their whips. Anybody could go left but right – only those who were sent there”. When the selection process was over, 1,400 – 1,700 young women were transported to the camp at Kaiserwald near Riga, hundreds of sick and elderly people were sent to Ponar, and all the rest, about 4,000 people, were transported to the Sobibor extermination camp, where they were gassed. The liquidation of the Vilna ghetto was complete! More than 2,000 people managed to escape death, some by hiding in the malinas in or outside the ghetto, some by joining the partisans, and some by infiltrating into the H.K.P and Keilis. The Jews from Vilna who survived after the liquidation of the ghetto, underwent many changes until the liberation. 10,400-11,000 men and women were taken to concentration camps in Estonia and Latvia, where many of them died of exhaustion, starvation and disease (amongst them Kruk and Kalmanovitch who wrote diaries of the Vilna ghetto). As the Russian front approached, some of them were murdered inside the camps (about 3,000 were killed in Klooga and Lagedi) and some were transferred from camp to camp in the West. Thousands were taken on ships to Stutthof and many perished as a result of the terrible conditions. Some participated in the Death Marches and most of them died or were killed. Out of the 2,500 people in the Vilna camps, only a few hundred survived. About 1,500 people who had managed to hide, were eventually discovered and put to death. However, almost all the 500 young men and women in the forests survived, and were able to take part in liberating the town together with the partisan movement and the Red Army. Only a few thousand of the 60,000 Jews of Vilna remained. Added to the terrible loss of life, all the Jewish spiritual assets and the glorious tradition that had accumulated and built up over hundreds of years – all of this disappeared, including the masses of property belonging to the Jews, stolen by the Nazi regime and serving the interests of the Aryan population until today. How the Individual and the Family Coped From the very beginning of the occupation, the Jewish family was faced with a new situation where sources of income were blocked, property was confiscated and means for obtaining food were becoming scarce. Surrounded by the powerful German machine which was supported by collaborating Lithuanian units and a mainly hostile population, the Jews used any survival tactics they could. In spite of the dangers involved, they conducted “illegal” business transactions, bribed officials and maintained mutual contact with their sympathetic Aryan neighbors. The initial, sporadic cases of murder were interpreted as antisemitism on a local level and punishment for disobeying orders. Although they were a source of embarrassment and extreme anxiety, they did not consider them indicative of what was to happen in the future. Even when the abductions started and thousands of men disappeared, they accepted the German excuse that they had been taken for work purposes. Indeed, could it possibly be otherwise? It was simply unimaginable that Nazis were murdering Jews in the name of ideology. And it just happened to be bad luck that the Jews of Vilna were the first in a series of mass murders. Even after the “Great Provocation” and the initial Aktionen during the period of the two ghettos, the Jews were still being deceived by the Germans in charge into thinking that nothing had really happened to the people who had disappeared and that they had only been taken to work camps and the third ghetto. Even after the first eye-witness reports began coming in from survivors of Ponar, logic refused to accept the situation as reality. And when the terrible truth did eventually penetrate their consciousness, about half the Jews of Vilna were no longer alive. And from that moment on, the people of the ghetto, whether consciously or unconsciously, adopted the strategy of “überleben” – survival, and did all they could to preserve their lives, even under terrible suffering and after the loss of their loved ones. Both the individual and the leadership worked towards this purpose. The desire to live and the longing to survive were evident, even in the most extreme situations beside the killing pits. Evidence for this can be seen by the suicide rate that was not particularly high. One of the most important manifestations in the struggle for life was the acquisition of the Schein. The ghetto Jews began to create fictitious family groups of four, adding names to the certificates of smaller families. Many people survived as a result, usually more distant relatives, but also wealthy Jews who bought their place in the Schein for money, often vast sums of it. Another expression of it were the malinas, in which people invested much effort, preparing them in advance in the event that they needed to hide. Thanks to the malinas thousands of people survived the various Aktionen, be it only temporarily. The struggle for survival was a daily fact of life. The food rations given to the ghetto by the German authorities constituted half of those allocated to the Aryan population, and even those were only for the legal inhabitants. Death by starvation was only a matter of time. The ghetto Jews managed to find a solution to this danger by smuggling and doing business with the non-Jews. Thus the thousands who left the ghetto daily for work on the outside, dealt in bartering (usually food products in exchange for clothing and jewelery) and brought the items they had purchased into the ghetto when they returned, having become expert in finding ways to hide them. The smugglers were in danger of receiving harsh punishment, from confiscation of goods and beatings, to executions (like the case of the famous actress Liuba Levitska [Lewicka]), but this did not prevent their activities, which were, after all, a means of survival. The ghetto even promoted an entire “industry” of improvised goods to help improve life and remind them of the “taste” of the good days, among which were ersatz candies and cigarettes, different baked goods, shoes and clothes from remnants, etc. As previously mentioned, living conditions were potentially open to the spread of disease and epidemics, but the ghetto had the means to overcome this. Each individual, whether of his own free will or because of pressure from the Judenrat (as explained below), saw to his own basic hygiene, attended the bathhouse and, when necessary, received medication or was hospitalized in the ghetto hospital. The housewives, who had to make do with a tiny kitchen they had to share with a number of other families, also managed with one another, in spite of disagreements between neighbors that sometimes ended up in court. In the fight for his life, the Jew of the ghetto, between mourning his losses and dread of what the future held in store for him, managed to maintain a spiritual life, to live for the moment, to go to the theater, to sing the songs of the ghetto and make jokes. He kept up his morale - an expression of defiance and protest against the German regime of terror. The people in the ghetto dealt with the situation and did not allow it to break them either physically or spiritually, and only the deportations to Estonia and Latvia and the liquidation of the ghetto brought their lives to an end, apart from a handful of survivors. How the Judenrat Coped Although the members of the Judenrat in Vilna were, as mentioned, unknown to the general public and had no connection to the traditional leadership, the Judenrat managed from the beginning to establish itself as the exclusive controlling body of the ghetto. It functioned on the horns of a dilemma: it had to abide strictly by the orders of the German authorities and comply with their demands – from providing people for work purposes to rounding up inhabitants during Aktionen – while at the same time it had to organize the way life was run in the ghetto. Its difficulties were compounded during the first months, when thousands were murdered in Ponar during the mass Aktionen, the infrastructures for overall organization were in the process of being prepared and the ghetto was in the depths of despair, not knowing which way to turn. From the start, the Judenrat worked at preserving the lives of the inhabitants. The rapid reorganization of institutions helped people to find somewhere to live, receive basic rations, minimal though they were, and provided the means to go out to work, thereby enabling them to smuggle and barter. The Judenrat gradually increased the number of food coupons to those classified by the Germans as “illegal” (about a quarter of the ghetto inhabitants), and bread coupons were distributed to almost everyone. To help provide the population with nourishment, especially the poor and the destitute, the Judenrat set up five communal kitchens that provided hot lunches on a daily basis, and dinners on a partial basis. In certain months more than one hundred thousand meals were provided, 80% of which were given free of charge. In addition, boiling water was supplied every morning, and this was a help both to those who worked outside the ghetto and to the housewives. The Judenrat organized wholesale supplies and smuggled goods to store food for the ghetto inhabitants. This took place without the knowledge of the German authorities, by bribing Lithuanian officials and guards and others, paying large sums of money to suppliers, and maintaining contact with the “right people” in the 18 German-Lithuanian regime. These activities of the Judenrat put its members in great danger (Braude, the director of the labor office, was even arrested by the Germans and taken to prison), but this did not deter them from continuing what they were doing. It was thanks to the Judenrat’s activities that the terrible phenomenon of mass death by starvation that occurred in other ghettos, was almost totally avoided in the Vilna ghetto, even though hunger was commonplace. To prevent the spread of disease, the Judenrat instituted strict control over hygiene and supervised a well-run medical system. The inhabitants were required, as mentioned, to attend the bathhouse at least once a month (without its written confirmation they could not receive food coupons), to fumigate their clothes, to air their apartments and clean out the houses and courtyards. The sick were admitted to hospital, treated in clinics and doctors made house calls. Special attention and resources were devoted to treating children: each preschool child had a medical record containing all tests and treatments, x-rays were carried out, they were weighed periodically (and extra food or milk was recommended when necessary!), etc. Children in schools and other institutions underwent tests from time to time and were even given recommendations as to what profession to choose, based on their medical history. The health department dealing with all these matters also ensured the supply of medicines from the outside, and there were times when more medicines were available in the ghetto than on the Aryan side. As a result of the combination of all these activities, death by “natural causes” was only about twice what it was before the war. As part of its attempt at easing the difficult life conditions in the ghetto, the Judenrat supplied the population with wood for heating during the freezing winter days of Vilna. During the first traumatic winter of 1941-42, when it had not yet organized itself, the population suffered terribly from the cold. However in preparation for the following winter, workers were even sent out to chop wood in the “ghetto forest”, which did much to solve the heating problem. Special attention was paid to the many orphaned children and the Judenrat set up an orphanage for them. In addition, it established separate dormitories for boys and girls, thus offering a solution for the tragic situation in which children had been left abandoned. At mortal risk to its members, the Judenrat managed to cope with the conditions imposed on them by the German regime, ran the ghetto normally, ensured the supply of food to the people, took strict care of public health, built up a wideranging education system for the children and took charge over the rich and varied cultural life of the ghetto. However, these beneficial activities of the Jewish police and the Judenrat were accompanied by negative disclosures (see below) that were protested violently by the ghetto population. Active Struggle against the German Policy of Deception Armed fighting against the German occupation meant death and whoever took this course knew he had no chance against its immense power. Members of the Vilna Underground willingly adopted the idea of armed fighting, knowing for certain that it would involve self-sacrifice. They did so to preserve Jewish dignity, which was expressed in the slogan “not to go like sheep to the slaughter”, and also to inflict as much damage as possible on the Germans. Members of the Underground who originated in the various youth movements where their ideology had become deeply ingrained, were highly motivated and convinced that there was no alternative. The vast majority of the ghetto people were not similarly convinced, as they lacked the fundamentals of an educational-ideological credo and sought every means available to stay alive. Their false hopes were based on the German policy of deception and dishonesty, that concealed the bitter truth of what was yet to come, building up their hopes time and again that the worst was over. The ghetto Jews – fathers, mothers, children and the elderly – all hung onto the treacherous words of the Germans, sometimes engaging in self-deception and seeing no other way out, rejected armed fighting outright because of the certainty of instant death. The German policy of trickery and deception - put into practice to a great degree by Gens and the Judenrat, who naively believed in the chances that Jews would survive which were finally proven wrong - succeeded in distancing the population from the Underground and from active resistance. In spite of this, throughout the entire ghetto period, sporadic incidences of active struggle were carried out by a few individuals. In some cases, Germans and Lithuanians were attacked during Aktionen in the ghetto and even at Ponar. This happened during the “Kovna Aktion” and the first transport to Estonia, when hundreds of Jews refused to comply when they realized they were about to be taken to their deaths and began fighting and running away from the armed soldiers and police. Almost all of them were killed and only a handful actually managed to escape. As previously mentioned, the Underground did not really fight the Germans inside the ghetto, apart from the battle on 1st September 1943. Their activities began to be significant after the fall of the ghetto, when members merged with the partisan movement in the forests of Rudniki and Naroch where they fought the Germans, inflicting losses on them and damaging their installations. A unique situation arose towards the end of 1943, when entire battalions composed of Jewish partisans from the underground movements in Vilna, Kovna and the small towns, fought within the brigades of the Soviet partisans. Negative Disclosures in the Activities of the Jewish Police and the Judenrat When assessing how the Judenrat functioned in the Vilna ghetto, it appears that in spite of all the activities they carried out for the benefit of the public, as mentioned previously, there were many negative features that were bitterly resented by the population. The Scheinen with which they were provided gave relative confidence and power to the members of the Judenrat, the people in high-ranking positions and a considerable number of the other officials. Many of them took advantage of this situation to misuse their authority, and were indifferent to the people and apathetic to their plight and supplications. “Protekzia” and helping family and members of the movement became an integral part of the “work ethic” of the Judenrat, and people were often forced to make use of former acquaintances, with the mediation of friends or bribes, to get what they wanted. In the frequent contact the inhabitants had with its representatives, they met with disdain, lack of consideration and insulting behavior to the point of degradation. They also knew how to pursue their own interests and gave themselves perks. In this manner they ran the “Payok” (“portion” in Russian) – an extra share of the commodities that were distributed according to rank, the head of the ghetto himself being at the top of the scale. The behavior of the Judenrat was not tolerated by the ghetto inhabitants, who were disgusted by them and their representatives. The population also regarded the deeds of Yaakov Gens with reservation and resentment. Although they admired and understood him and were aware of his good intentions, his concern for the preservation of life and his ability to bargain with the Germans and the Lithuanians (traits that were lacking in his predecessor, Anatol Fried), yet he acted arbitrarily and pompously and sealed people’s fates as he saw fit. According to his concept, it was important to keep alive the young and the healthy, whom he considered the future of the people, and whenever the decision was in his hands, he would opt to sacrifice the elderly, the sick and the weak. Gens also preferred the Jewish police to carry out Aktionen in the ghetto, rather than the Germans and Lithuanians, thus putting his policy into practice. Many losses were prevented as a result of his brave stand against the German officials, but at the same time he took upon himself excessive moral authority which a human being should never have – deciding who is to live and who is to die. The ghetto considered this totally unacceptable. The most negative phenomena were revealed in the activities of the Jewish police. The tragic role carried out by the policemen – rounding up their Jewish brethren and handing them over to the Germans – was enough to make them hated by the general public. But even if it were still possible to make the excuse that they wanted to stay alive and that anyway, somebody had to carry out the duty, their brutal actions towards their own people and the force and sadistic methods they used against the weak would still be unjustified, and the ghetto bitterly resented them and avoided contact with them. Some of the police took advantage of their status for personal benefit, ill-gotten gains and payoffs. During the “Oshmiana Aktion” the police used deceptive means similar to those of the Germans, according to which they chose their victims. They also wore uniforms, got drunk and went out looting. Dessler, the chief of police and Levas, the gate guard commander, were among the individuals most despised by them. “The Vilna Ghetto Spirit” as an Expression of Self Defense The phenomenon in the ghetto to be known as “the Vilna Ghetto Spirit” consisted of a wide-ranging and amazingly intensive selection of cultural activities, a special attitude to life, humor, voluntary aid organizations, and the like. This was evident in various areas, one of its prominent expressions being the theater. Its formation in January 1942 immediately following the bloody Aktionen and fear of the future, led to public opposition, including posters in the streets protesting “No theater in a graveyard”. But it was not long before this attitude changed, and it received recognition and became very popular. Both the theater and the symphony orchestra, which was founded at the same time, managed to boost the morale of the inhabitants and provide them with a brief respite from the killings and hardships of their living conditions. Performances were given to packed audiences, with an overall attendance of 38,000 people - almost double the total population of the ghetto - during 1942. Performances were usually based on musical renditions and satirical texts, written and composed by ghetto artists, and later becoming popular in the ghetto and beyond. The theater and the orchestra even performed for different events and in front of the council of brigadeers, thus enhancing the bond with the “common folk”. The actors, directors and vocalists were of the highest professional standard, with a serious attitude to theater, and it was not long before they became adored by the audience. 1943 even saw the opening of a Hebrew theater that performed the “The Eternal Jew”, but this did not last long owing to the liquidation of the ghetto. In addition to the theater, there was a wide range of musical activities, including the symphony orchestra (with a small chamber orchestra on the side), and a Yiddish and a Hebrew choir (the latter, for the first time in Vilna!) So many songs were composed in the Vilna ghetto, that they constitute more than 40% in the anthologies of ghetto and camp songs. Some have become popular the world over (such as the Partisan’s Anthem and “Ponar”). The theatrical and musical activities of the Vilna ghetto were a source of inspiration for the playwright Yehoshua Sobol, who wrote “Ghetto”, a play that earned international recognition, the songs of which are sung by choruses (such as the Austrian “Goyim”) and other vocalists. The “Ghetto Spirit” expressed itself in a wide variety of events, including lectures, art and sculpture exhibitions, symposiums, etc., festivities, ceremonies celebrating the end of the school year and festivals in the schools, youth clubs and child centers (for example, on T’u B’Shvat [festival of trees] in 1942, a school party was arranged under the slogan “Regards from the Children of the Ghetto to the Children in the Land of Israel”, accompanied by photographs of the children in both places), eurhythmic performances, and others. The inhabitants very much enjoyed reading books and the library was extremely popular. Reading enabled them to escape from their terrible reality. Thus, for example, the demand for books was especially great during the months when the mass Aktionen took place, October – December 1941. The library (run by Hermann Kruk, who wrote the very important Ghetto Vilna Diary) was opened around the time the Jews entered the ghetto, and was built upon the pre-war existing library. Nearly 90,000 books were lent out during its first year of existence. The library held an important place for the intellectuals (around 70% of the books read were in Polish, the language used by the intelligentsia, whereas the “commoners” used Yiddish), and was also popular with the youth. Occasional sports and chess competitions were held in the ghetto, and a gymnastics hall and a special sports stadium were fixed up (in the Strashun 6 courtyard): sports gave the young people an opportunity to meet, to keep in shape and to alleviate their anxieties. In addition to all the above, the special atmosphere in the ghetto, spiced with humor, helped the people keep their daily problems at bay. They would tell jokes, used various idiomatic expressions to make fun of the Germans and the leadership of the Judenrat and the police, and they adopted the songs and satirical sayings that grew against the background of the surrounding reality. The “Ghetto Spirit” was also evident when it came to helping the needy, clearly exemplified by the voluntary organizations “the Public Aid Committee” and “Winter Assistance”, which were established at the initiative of the public (with the backing of the Judenrat). They supplied clothes to the needy, food for the hungry, heating material and warm clothing for the winter. The sources for these organizations originated mainly from the public, who, in spite of their own hardships, did donate to the poor and the needy (sometimes under pressure). The political parties and youth movements united their forces into one underground in order to fight the Germans and their collaborators. In spite of their differences in ideology, which could sometimes be extreme, the movement members managed to create a united force, in which the sub-units consisting of communists, “Bundists” and Zionists of different factions, fought side by side. Although they remained connected to their movements on a socio-ideological level, within the underground units they had a joint purpose, independent of the mother movement. This phenomenon was unique where the ghettos were concerned, and was also due to this same “Ghetto Spirit”. The “Vilna Ghetto Spirit” was cultivated by the rich spiritual life and Jewish brotherhood among the ghetto inhabitants, and by the intense desire and continuing hope of the ghetto Jews to survive. It was rooted in the social and cultural heritage of Vilna Judaism. It was a demonstration of psychological power 25 against the murderous intentions of the Germans and was proof that in spite of their oppressive conditions and the terrible loss of life, the Jews of the city did not break or lose their spirit. The Jews of Vilna, who lived in the ghetto as a normal society, with an extraordinary spiritual life and a network of mutual assistance, in their desperate desire for “überleben”, perished and with them, their glorious heritage disappeared forever. Only a few thousand remained.