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On January
21, 1942, representatives of Zionist youth movements convened in the
Vilna Ghetto, resolved to mount a resistance, and founded the United
Partisan Organization-the Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO)
in Yiddish. The FPO was an outgrowth of the discussion held on the
night of December 31, 1941, in which the poster concerning
"Lambs to the slaughter" was read out and the Jewish youth
movement leaders were urged to organize for struggle against the
Germans, in the awareness that the Germans intended to subject the
Jews to genocide. Yitzhak Wittenberg, a representative of the
Communists, was chosen as commander. The task of the FPO was to make
preparations for armed resistance that would be offered the moment
the Germans came to liquidate the ghetto. The members of the new
organization were divided into five-person underground cells that
were combined into platoons and companies. All the parties and youth
movements that united for resistance were represented in the FPO
command. The FPO sent representatives to other ghettos in order to
establish contact, apprise them of the genocide campaign underway,
and spread the idea of resistance and rebellion. The FPO’s main
problem and constraint was the procurement of weapons. |
