The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto

Book excerpt: A history of the Vilna ghetto, focusing on resistance and on the Judenrat, and revolving around three persons: Yitzhak Wittenberg, the leader of the United Partisan Organization (FPO) in Vilna; Yechiel (Ilya) Sheinbaum, who led the Second Fighting Organization; and Jacob Gens, the head of the ghetto and of the Jewish police. Criticizes the strategic plan for a "last minute uprising" which was adopted by the FPO instead of the more promising strategy of escape from the ghetto and joining the Soviet partisans. With the surrender of Wittenberg in July 1943, the FPO lost its only able and resolute commander. Contends that there was no "Vilna ghetto uprising", but only the defense of the house at Strashune 6 on 1 September 1943; it was defended by Sheinbaum's organization and by unaffiliated fighters, rather than by the FPO. Ideological and political rivalries between different factions of the ghetto resistance precluded the possibility of escape and survival of many able-bodied Jews. Depicts Gens as a controversial figure, whose relations with the resistance were ambivalent; dismisses accusations that he was a Nazi collaborator or a leader drunk with power.