The Ghetto That Turned Knowledge into Resistance

The Vilna Ghetto story begins in a city once called the “Jerusalem of Lithuania,” where Jewish life was vibrant and central. Before WWII, Jews made up about a third of Vilna’s population, sustaining schools, theaters, newspapers, libraries, and intense political and cultural debate. After 1939, shifting Soviet and Lithuanian control brought repression but not yet extermination. That changed in June 1941 with the Nazi invasion. Assisted by local collaborators, the Germans launched terror, forced labor, and mass murder—especially at Ponary, where tens of thousands were shot. In September 1941, two ghettos were created; the “small ghetto” was quickly liquidated. Despite hunger and fear, cultural life and underground resistance grew.