Abba Kovner
Encyclopedia
Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish
Hebrew
poet
, writer
, and partisan
leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel
. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner
.
n Black Sea
port city of Sevastopol
but soon moved with his family to Vilnius
(then in Poland
, now in Lithuania
) where he grew up and was educated at the secondary Hebrew academy and the school of the arts. While pursuing his studies, he joined and became an active member in the socialist Zionist youth movement
HaShomer HaTzair
.
In June 1941, Nazi Germany
attacked the city, which was by that time in Lithuanian SSR
, and after occupation established the Vilna Ghetto
. Kovner managed to escape with several friends to a Dominican
convent
headed by Anna Borkowska
in the city's suburbs, but he soon returned to the ghetto. He concluded that in order for any revolt to be successful, a Jewish resistance fighting force needed to be assembled. He commanded the United Partisan Organization in the forests near Vilnius and engaged in sabotage and guerrilla attacks against the Nazis. He continued his partisan efforts throughout the war and survived the Holocaust.
After the occupation of Vilnius
by the Soviet Red Army in July 1944, he became one of the founders of the Berihah
movement, helping Jews escape Eastern Europe after the war. He came to Palestine for a short period of time in 1945, and then returned to Europe to, with the Nakam
organization, continue underground activities against Nazi POW's.
Abba Kovner founded Nakam
(Dam Yehudi Nakam - "Jewish Blood Will Be Avenged") as a Jewish organization with the aim of avenging the Holocaust. Nakam attempted a mass assassination on April 14, 1946 at the Langwasser internment camp near Nuremberg
. Bread for 12,000 to 15,000 German POWs (mostly SS members) was reputedly painted with diluted arsenic. According to the New York Times in 1946, 207 of the interned soldiers fell ill and were admitted into the hospital but none died. Kovner was detained and deported from Europe back to Israel, where he eventually served as an officer in the Givati Brigade
in the Israel War of Independence. During his service he authored "battle leaflets," designed to keep up morale.
His book of poetry Ad Lo-Or, ("Until No-Light"), 1947, describes in lyric-dramatic narrative the struggle of the Resistance partisans in the swamps and forests of Eastern Europe. Ha-Mafteach Tzalal, ("The Key Drowned"), 1951, is also about this struggle. Pridah Me-ha-darom ("Departure from the South"), 1949, and Panim el Panim ("Face to Face"), 1953, continue the story with the Israeli War of Independence.
Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...
Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner
Meir Vilner
Meir Vilner was an Israeli communist politician and Jewish leader of the Communist Party of Israel , which consisted primarily of Israeli Arabs...
.
Biography
Abba Kovner was born in the CrimeaCrimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
n Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
port city of Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
but soon moved with his family to Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
(then in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, now in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
) where he grew up and was educated at the secondary Hebrew academy and the school of the arts. While pursuing his studies, he joined and became an active member in the socialist Zionist youth movement
Zionist youth movement
A Zionist youth movement is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideological development, including a belief in Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel...
HaShomer HaTzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...
.
In June 1941, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
attacked the city, which was by that time in Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
, and after occupation established the Vilna Ghetto
Vilna Ghetto
The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...
. Kovner managed to escape with several friends to a Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
headed by Anna Borkowska
Anna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda)
Anna Borkowska a.k.a. Sister Bertranda , a graduate of the University of Kraków, was a Polish nun who served as Mother Superior of a convent for an order of Dominican Sisters at a cloister in Kolonia Wileńska, near Wilno, Poland...
in the city's suburbs, but he soon returned to the ghetto. He concluded that in order for any revolt to be successful, a Jewish resistance fighting force needed to be assembled. He commanded the United Partisan Organization in the forests near Vilnius and engaged in sabotage and guerrilla attacks against the Nazis. He continued his partisan efforts throughout the war and survived the Holocaust.
After the occupation of Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
by the Soviet Red Army in July 1944, he became one of the founders of the Berihah
Berihah
Bricha was the underground organized effort that helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post-World War II Europe to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939...
movement, helping Jews escape Eastern Europe after the war. He came to Palestine for a short period of time in 1945, and then returned to Europe to, with the Nakam
Nakam
The Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....
organization, continue underground activities against Nazi POW's.
Abba Kovner founded Nakam
Nakam
The Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....
(Dam Yehudi Nakam - "Jewish Blood Will Be Avenged") as a Jewish organization with the aim of avenging the Holocaust. Nakam attempted a mass assassination on April 14, 1946 at the Langwasser internment camp near Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
. Bread for 12,000 to 15,000 German POWs (mostly SS members) was reputedly painted with diluted arsenic. According to the New York Times in 1946, 207 of the interned soldiers fell ill and were admitted into the hospital but none died. Kovner was detained and deported from Europe back to Israel, where he eventually served as an officer in the Givati Brigade
Givati Brigade
The Givati Brigade is an infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, and serves as its amphibious force. Givati soldiers are designated by purple berets...
in the Israel War of Independence. During his service he authored "battle leaflets," designed to keep up morale.
His book of poetry Ad Lo-Or, ("Until No-Light"), 1947, describes in lyric-dramatic narrative the struggle of the Resistance partisans in the swamps and forests of Eastern Europe. Ha-Mafteach Tzalal, ("The Key Drowned"), 1951, is also about this struggle. Pridah Me-ha-darom ("Departure from the South"), 1949, and Panim el Panim ("Face to Face"), 1953, continue the story with the Israeli War of Independence.
Awards and honors
- In 1968, Kovner was awarded the Brenner PrizeBrenner PrizeThe Brenner Prize is an Israeli literary prize awarded annually by the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and the Haft Family Foundation.It was founded in the name of the author Yosef Haim Brenner and was first awarded in 1945....
for literature. - In 1970, Kovner was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for literature.
Further reading
- See The Modern Hebrew Poem ItselfThe Modern Hebrew Poem ItselfThe Modern Hebrew Poem Itself is an anthology of modern Hebrew poetry, presented in the original language, with a transliteration into Roman script, a literal translation into English, and commentaries and explanations....
(2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1 - See My Little Sister and Selected Poems, trans. Shirley Kaufman (1986), ISBN 0-932440-20-7
- See The AvengersNakamThe Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....
(2000), by Rich CohenRich Cohen (author)Rich Cohen is an American non-fiction writer. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines. He lives in New York City.-Background and education:...
, ISBN 0-375-40546-1
See also
- Anna BorkowskaAnna Borkowska (Sister Bertranda)Anna Borkowska a.k.a. Sister Bertranda , a graduate of the University of Kraków, was a Polish nun who served as Mother Superior of a convent for an order of Dominican Sisters at a cloister in Kolonia Wileńska, near Wilno, Poland...
- Bielski partisansBielski partisansThe Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- NakamNakamThe Nokmim, also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, were alleged groups of Jewish assassins that targeted Nazi war criminals with the aim of avenging the Holocaust....