Resistance and Survival: The Jewish Community in Kaunas 1941-1944 by Sara Ginaite-Rubinson

Author:Sara Ginaite-Rubinson [Ginaite-Rubinson, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780889628168
Publisher: Mosaic Press
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

FROM GHETTO RESISTERS

TO PARTISANS

After the failure of the march to Augustova Forest, we received permission from Zimanas (Jurgis) to send ghetto inmates to join the partisans in Rudninkai Forest. In November 1943, the first small group of nine ghetto resisters got ready to escape. From the ghetto, they had to go to the village of Murava to meet up with their guides. From there, they would march about 150 kilometers on foot, with the guides, to Rudninkai Forest. The nine ghetto fighters made their way to Murava in groups of two. Ida Pilovnik-Vilenchiuk knew the road and carried all the weapons in a basket as she walked together with her boyfriend Aaron Vilenchiuk. At the moment when Aaron took Ida’s heavy basket from her, they were stopped by police who asked for their documents. Ida, in perfect Lithuanian, started to explain that she worked as a seamstress and that she was merely out for a walk with a friend.

“Why would one Lithuanian want to arrest another Lithua-nian?”she asked, and begged the policemen to let her go. The policemen waved Ida on and told her to hurry home. She grabbed the basket full of weapons from Aaron and walked on ahead. Then she slipped into a small woods and hid. Aaron had much more difficulty explaining himself and pretending he was Lithuanian. He admitted that he was a Jew and said that he was going to the village to barter for food. Of course, his pleas were to no avail. One of the policemen took Aaron to the police station and the other one, having concluded that Ida must also be Jewish, took a bicycle from a passerby and went after her. The furious policeman cycled around the road but was unable to find her; he did dare to go to the forest. Riding the bicycle along the road, the policeman noticed another suspicious young man. He stopped the ghetto resister, Aba Diskant, also on his way to Murava. Aba was arrested and taken to the police station. There Aaron and Aba were beaten, taken to the Gestapo, then transferred to the Ninth Fort.

Ida spent the night in the forest. Attempting to cross a small ice-covered river, she had fallen into the water. Early the next morning, tired after walking for hours and soaked to the bone, she finally reached Murava. There, in a safe house, she changed her clothing, rested a little bit, and delivered the basket of weapons. In the evening, she returned to the ghetto. This first group of resisters met with even more misfortune. Near Murava, one of the guides accidentally injured the group leader, Moishe Upnicki, who was forced to return to the ghetto. Very close to the partisan base, another ghetto fighter Elijahu Olkin was mortally wounded under unexplained circumstances. Of that first group, only four fighters reached the “Death to the Occupiers” Detachment of partisan.

After this unsuccessful mission, the AFO committee accepted Moishe Musels’ proposal to transport the fighters to the partisans by truck.

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