Call to Arms

Abba Kovner

1942

A Summons to Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto, January 1942

Let us not be led like sheep to the slaughter!

Jewish youth!

In a time of unparalleled national misfortune we appeal to you!

We do not yet have the words to express the whole tragic struggle which transpires before our eyes. Our language has no words to probe the depths to which our life has…

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From the Curator

On New Year’s Eve in 1942, the leaders of the youth movements in the Vilna ghetto gathered to hear a manifesto written by Abba Kovner, a 22-year-old poet and leader of the left-wing Zionist youth movement. Two-thirds of Vilna's Jews were already dead. Kovner presciently realized that the murder of Lithuanian Jewry was not a local event but a precursor to the destruction of all of European Jewry. Kovner’s declaration galvanized the remaining members of the Vilna ghetto to organize for armed resistance—one of many ways that European Jews resisted the Nazi regime and attempted to preserve their humanity.

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Call to Arms

A Summons to Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto, January 1942

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Call to Arms

A Summons to Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto, January 1942

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Abba Kovner

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