In the Anti-Nazi Underground of the Kovno Ghetto
The Craving for Resistance and its Realization
By: Prof. Dov Levin, Jerusalem 2005
http://www.thepartizans.org/memories.asp?id=72&cat=memories

Just as it was forbidden to bring into the Ghetto food, fuel and, of course, weapons, so bringing in reading material was strictly prohibited. In spite of this, individuals and groups were involved in smuggling. It was done via the gate to the Ghetto or along the wall surrounding the entire Ghetto and guarded by armed Lithuanian guards. Because of the hunger and bitter cold that we frequently experienced in our house, I, also occasionally endangered myself by smuggling food, coal and from time to time, a newspaper - in order to follow what was happening outside the Ghetto, and in particular on the War front. One day I got hold of a newspaper with a picture of a man who was described in German as Bandenfuerer Tito, gang leader Tito and who fought against the Germans in Yugoslavia. I had such a great longing to meet a man like this in the Kovno area!

I eventually learned that already in the summer of 1942 the Polish Irena Adomowicz from the Vilna Ghetto secretly infiltrated the Ghetto as a representative of Hashomer Hatzair. The aim of her visit was to encourage the members of the various Zionist movements in the area to increase their organized opposition to the Germans. However, because of the extreme secrecy of their visit, I did not get to meet her, but shortly after I became aware of the active results of her visit, I did not get to meet her, but shortly after I became aware of the active results of her visit.

At the same time, I began to hear fascinating accounts of the activities of anti-Nazi partisans in the forests of eastern Lithuania. But how was one able to reach them ? When I revealed my wish to some of my close friends in Hashomer Hatzair, I found out that they were already involved in the underground that hoped to attain the same goal. Naturally, I joined the cell of one of those underground groups. Leading the group of three (the troika) was a young woman named Gitta Pogeer, who today is a member of Kibbuts Reshafim. A strange feeling overcame us when one summer evening in 1943, Gitta brought us the bolt of a rifle wrapped in a German newspaper. Even before that, we had heard rumors that there were weapons in the ghetto, and the stories of the acquisition of arms were passed by word of mouth, but now we were able to feel the cold steel in our own hands !

With all of that, we knew that we had to learn quickly how to assemble and disassemble the rifle since another cell was waiting for it. Gitta tested our familiarity and it turned out that she had just learned what she was teaching us yesterday. I was forbidden to reveal my membership in the underground even to my own parents and sister. They probably guessed that I was involved in something serious and important, but they did not discuss it with me. From then on, every aspect of my life was connected to the underground…. Until the happy day in spring 1944, when I reached with my rifle the Rudniki Forests and were accepted together with thirty-five youngsters from Kovno Ghetto in the ranks of the Partisan Unit "Death to the German Occupier" --- like on a Different Planet !

(English translation by Mr. Shalom Bronstein)