The End of Tammuz 5704 – The Bitter End of the Kovno Ghetto
(Photos from the Ganzach Kiddush Hashem Archives)
The deportation from the Kovno Ghetto
Exactly eighty years ago, at the end of the month of Tammuz 5704 (July 1944), the Kovno Ghetto faced its final liquidation.
2,000 Jews were killed throughout the ghetto in all kinds of ways, and the rest were scattered in various death camps on the way to their brutal deaths.
The liquidation was preceded by the well-known action in 1941 in which 9,000 Jews were killed out of 30,000 Jews in the Kovno Ghetto; The next two years were indeed quiet in terms of mass murders, but even then, the ghetto residents suffering terribly, in all respects.
In the winter of 5703, (1943) the terrible action was held in which the children of the ghetto were kidnapped and sent to the unknown, to the sound of terrible crying that emanated from all corners of the ghetto.
A street in the Kovno Ghetto
The Jews of Kovno moving to the ghetto
Jews in the Kovno Ghetto
A Jewish woman doing laundy in the Kovno Ghetto
A heartbreaking separation in the Kovno Ghetto
“Access to the river is prohibited for Jews” – The children of the Kovno Ghetto view the sign
Kovno – fleeing Jews who were caught
A view of the ghetto – Jewish policemen
Tragically, the liquidation of the ghetto took place just weeks before the liberation by the Red Army.
During the evacuation, many tried to hide, but almost all were discovered. 2,000 residents were burned or shot by the Germans. The evacuees were sent to concentration camps in Germany, the men to Dachau and the women to Stutthof, where another 2,500 of the Jews of Kovno were murdered. On August 1st, 1944, Kovno was liberated by the Red Army. Only 500 Jews remained alive in Kovno itself. At the end of the war, only about eight percent of the Jewish population was still alive, which was two thousand people in total.
On the 29th of Tammuz (July 20th), in the hospital of the Kovno Ghetto, the renowned genius, a man of morals (mussar), one of the great spreaders of Torah, Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski, was burned to death – may G-d avenge his blood.
Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski z”l
Below is an excerpt from an article in his memory that was published in the diary of Avraham Tori:
Rabbi Grodzinski lives in the old city, Slobodka, in a narrow alley. There stands the building of the Slobodka Yeshiva, and next to it in a two-story building lives Rabbi Grodzinski.
Not long ago, the work in the work company ended, and the alley is full of people. Oshry tells me that in those days, between the Mincha and Maariv prayers, crowds gathered here – rabbis, yeshiva students, and mere pious people. Now the situation is different; today you see people here whose faces are dark and gloomy and whose clothes are torn and worn. Loaded with backpacks, they return from work after a hard day’s labour…
Oshry and I walk down the narrow alley full of people, and approach a house made of wood. Oshry goes first. He goes up a narrow wooden staircase, and I follow him. We pass through two small rooms, crammed with beds and closets, and enter the third room, which is also full of furniture and various objects. In the middle of the room, stands a round table, covered with a red velvet tablecloth, reminiscent of the table covering in the Beit Midrash. On the table is a stack of Gemaras and Chumash (Pentateuch) books.
At the table sits Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski, an old man with a thick beard and a pale and sickly face. He is wearing Shabbat clothes and a kippah covers his head. Next to him – a Chumash with a black cover. Rabbi Avraham gives over words of Torah. Around him, in this room and in the other, are yeshiva students, both young and old. Their eyes are directed to where the old rabbi is sitting. The people wipe the sweat off their faces and under their hats.
When we entered the room, Rabbi Grodzinski was in the middle of his speech. He extended his hand to me, the guest. I sat and was ready to listen to Rabbi Avraham’s words on mussar (morals).
Rabbi Grodzinski continues and preaches: “There is only one greatness in the world, and that is the greatness of the Torah, which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to the People of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai (the time was close to Shavuot, and the rabbi was talking about the giving of the Torah). The Jews received the Torah, and even before they knew what was said in it, hurried and said: ‘naaseh ve’nishma’ (we will do and we will listen). This is a phenomenon that is out of the ordinary. The Jews believed in the Master of the World, and therefore they were sure that the Torah was good for them. Even though a person cannot see G-d in His greatness, only Moses was able to see Him face to face, as it says: ‘With him I speak mouth to mouth’ (Numbers 12:8).”
“The nations of the world see greatness and glory in literature and art. This assessment of theirs originates from the fact that they do not recognize the importance of the Torah. Many of the Children of Israel also failed with incorrect preference, and this is because they did not understand that the true greatness is embodied in the Torah. The Torah does not demand from the Jew things that are beyond his ability; it demands from him to be what he really is, to behave according to the qualities he is endowed with, not to run away from himself, not to deny his character. He must be as he is, as G-d created him.”
“Man is good by nature, and he must be careful not to be taken off the straight path. Don’t give in to the evil inclination. The Nation of Israel was chosen by the Creator of the World to be His people. That is why we must suffer more than other peoples. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Torah, so that we would know how to behave. There are three basic virtues among the People of Israel: reverence (shame), mercy, and kindness. Reverence does not simply mean fear of G-d in Heaven. Reverence is a result of the exaltation of the Creator. Shame doesn’t mean just feling shame; its meaning is humility. In view of the greatness of the Creator, man sees himself as small to the point of real shame. The measure of mercy: There is no limit to the mercy of Jews. All of the People of Israel are merciful. And kindness is the attitude of one person to another. With the strength of all these virtues, the People of Israel can bear all the troubles that plagued them for many generations. The troubles that are his lot now – the people already knew in the past. In the Torah, it is explicitly stated that this or that punishment comes for nothing: why the first Temple was destroyed and why the second temple destroyed. “
“Those with faith, those with good character traits, can be sure that they will overcome all hardships. The People of Israel will overcome all the troubles of our time.” With that Rabbi Grodzinski ended his lesson in morals for the day.
We thanked Rabbi Avraham for his instructive lesson – and said goodbye to him. We went out into the street. “It has already been 35 years since the handing down of the method of teaching morals from Rabbi Avraham at the Slobodka Yeshiva,” Oshry said. “And he continued this even after the arrival of the Bolsheviks. Now he preaches in his home. They wanted to move him to the Land of Israel, he also refused to part with the place and the position he inherited.”
In the first days of the war, Rabbi Avraham sat with 16 students. When the disturbances began in Slobodka – according to Oshry – his students and close associates begged him to stop his teaching and find a hiding place for himself until the wrath passed. But Rabbi Avraham is not a man who runs away from his role and destiny. He told them that precisely now, in an emergency, one should learn Torah. If he is destined to die – it is good that he dies with a Torah scroll in his hands.
When a Lithuanian partisan gang approached his house, three young men hid in the basement and the bathroom. The partisans entered Rabbi Avraham’s room and found him giving over words of Torah to thirteen students. The Lithuanians arrested the young men and brought them to the Seventh Forth. They left Rabbi Avraham, who was somewhat handicapped, at his home. They only arrested young people that day.
Rabbi Avraham continues his lesson surrounded by students and followers of the method of morals, despite the dangers and storms. He believes with complete faith that the People of Israel will emerge strengthened from all the tribulations of our time. Rabbi Avraham and his students are few, but constitute a significant part of the reality of the ghetto.
From the history of Rabbi Grodzinski, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski was one of the rabbis of the Mussar (morals) Movement. He served as an overseer of the Knesset Yisrael Yeshiva in Slobodka (a suburb of Kovno) in Lithuania. In the last years before the Holocaust, he also served as head of the yeshiva. He was murdered by the Nazis in the Kovno Ghetto.
His father was Rabbi Yitzchak. At the age of 17, he went to study in the Slobodka Yeshiva, and was one of the students of Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, known as the “Alter (elder) of Slobodka.” At the age of 21, he was sent by Rabbi Natan Tzvi – together with 3 other elite students – to the Telz Yeshiva to assist Rabbi Eliezer Gordon to lead the morals method in his yeshiva. At the age of 24, after the success of his mission, he returned to Slobodka and joined the administration of the yeshiva.
In 5672 (1911-2), he married Chasya, the daughter of Rabbi David Tzvi Heller, an overseer in the yeshiva, a relative of the Alter of Slobodka and a student of the Alter of Chelm
During the First World War, the yeshiva migrated to Minsk and from there to Kremenchuk in Ukraine. The students of the yeshiva had to avoid service in the Russian army, at the same time they suffered from epidemics that frequently broke out. During this period, Rabbi Grodzinski emerged as a leader and educator who was sensitive to the suffering of others.
In the year 5685 (1924-5), he was sent by the yeshiva administration to established a yeshiva in the Land of Israel together with Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna. After the established the yeshiva in Chevron, he remained in Israel for several months to help with the yeshiva, and afterwards, he returned to Slobodka. In 5687 (1926-7), he was appointed to serve as the head and spiritual director of the Slobodka Yeshiva following the immigration to the Land of Israel of the Alter of Slobodka and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein, in order to serve as the head of the yeshiva in Chevron.
He was an expert in the wisdom of the mind and through it he shaped the personality of his students. He spread the method of morals by writing articles in the journal “Tvuna” published by the students of the Slobodka Yeshiva. He applied his thoughts on character traits, first and foremost, to himself.
At the beginning of World War II, the Nazis occupied Eastern Poland and annexed it to Lithuania, and many Jewish refugees fled from Poland to Vilna in order to be saved, and many of them moved from there to Kovno to organize a possibility to escape overseas from Europe. Together with Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski of Vilna, he worked to save as many Jews as possible. At the same time, he worked to help the members of the yeshiva and the scholars who ended up in Vilna. He did all this despite the worsening of his illness.
On Nisan 27, 5701 (June 22, 1941), the Germans conquered Lithuania. Despite the increasing distress, Rabbi Grodzinski and well-known rabbis and heads of yeshivas who hid in his house continued to study Torah. One day, Nazi soldiers broke into his house and murdered several rabbis. Rabbi Grodzinski was saved on this occasion because he was lying in the attic. In other cases, he was saved thanks to the devotion of the Jews of Kovno.
On Tammuz 22, 5704 (July 8, 1944), the Nazis deported the remaining Jews to a concentration camp outside the city. Rabbi Grodzinski was hospitalized due to his illness, and on Tammuz 27, 5704 (July 13, 1944) the Nazis set the hospital on fire while he was there sick. Hundreds of Jewish patients were burned alive, including Rabbi Grodzinski, as well as children.
His brother, Rabbi Moshe Grodzinski, who was the overseer of the Torat Chaim Yeshiva in Warsaw, and immigrated to Israel, was murdered in the riots of 5689 (1929).
Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski married the daughter of the previous overseer of the Slobodka Yeshiva, Rabbi Dov Hirsch Heller. Rabbi Heller’s second daughter, Ita Etel, married Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky.
Of his eight children, four were murdered in the Holocaust and four survived:
His son, Rabbi Yitzchak Grodzinski of Bnei Brak
His daughter, Rivka, married to Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, one of the leaders of the Mussar Movement in the recent generation.
His daughter, Sarah, married to Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth, known as the “Ilui (prodigy) of Krakow,” the rabbi of Antwerp.
His daughter, Leah, married to Rabbi Baruch Rosenberg, the head of the Slobodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.
Link to a mussar article written by Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski (in Hebrew): http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=23610&st=&pgnum=9
