Vitka Kempner

From Kalisz to Vilna

Vitka Kempner was born in Kalisz, in western Poland near the German border. Hebrew Wikipedia gives her date of birth as 14 March 1920 and English Wikipedia the year 1920; the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF) gives 1922. Her parents were Chaya and Tzvi Kempner, and she had two younger brothers (Hebrew Wikipedia). English Wikipedia says she was educated in Warsaw and was briefly a member of Betar before joining Hashomer Hatzair.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and Kalisz fell, she escaped east to Vilna (English and Hebrew Wikipedia, JPEF). English Wikipedia says she fled with her brother Baruch. Her family who stayed behind were killed in the Holocaust (Hebrew Wikipedia).

In the Vilna ghetto and the FPO

After the Germans occupied Vilna in June 1941 and set up the ghetto, Kempner was held there and worked as a liaison between the ghetto and the city (Hebrew Wikipedia). She belonged to the Vilna group of Hashomer Hatzair, which turned into a resistance cell led by Abba Kovner and helped organise the FPO, founded in January 1942 (JPEF, English Wikipedia).

With Itzke Matzkevich she studied the timetable of German military trains, and the two blew up a German train in a forest near Vilna. JPEF says she smuggled the home-made bomb out of the ghetto herself, and both JPEF and English Wikipedia describe it as the FPO's first act of sabotage. Hebrew Wikipedia says the FPO leadership decided on the first railway attack in June 1942, and that Kovner was responsible for choosing the site.

She also moved weapons and people through the city's sewers (English Wikipedia, JPEF). When the ghetto was destroyed in September 1943, she helped lead fighters out through the sewers to the forests (JPEF). More on the underground is on The Vilna ghetto and the FPO.

Patrols in the Rudniki forest

In the Rudniki (Rūdninkai) forest Kempner became one of Kovner's lieutenants in the Jewish partisan unit known as the Avengers, which JPEF says she helped to establish. Her missions, as the sources describe them:

• She commanded patrols that gathered intelligence, kept contact with the underground in the city and carried medicine, and took part in combat and sabotage (English Wikipedia).
• She was appointed commander of a reconnaissance platoon (Hebrew Wikipedia).
• Against an order of the partisan command, she led a group of Jews into the forest (Hebrew Wikipedia).
• Over the following months the Avengers destroyed parts of Vilna's power plant and waterworks (JPEF, English Wikipedia).
• In July 1944 she led a patrol that reached Vilna as it was being liberated by the Red Army (English Wikipedia).

For the wider picture see Jewish partisans.

Nakam and the journey to Palestine

After the war Kempner was one of the founders and leaders of Nakam ("revenge"), with Kovner and Rozka Korczak (English Wikipedia). Hebrew Wikipedia says she worked with the group in Paris and was its liaison with the Jewish Brigade. The sources date the group's bread poisoning differently:

The Hebrew site covers the group on its page about Nakam. Kempner and Kovner also helped smuggle Jews from Europe to Palestine, which the British authorities had forbidden (JPEF, English Wikipedia). She reached Palestine in July 1946 (English Wikipedia) on the immigrant ship Biriya (Hebrew Wikipedia).

Ein HaHoresh and a career in psychology

Kempner settled with Kovner at Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, and the two married in 1946; they had two children, Michael and Shlomit (English and Hebrew Wikipedia, JPEF). After an illness with tuberculosis around 1951 she studied, and at about 45 she began clinical psychology at Bar-Ilan University. She developed a method she called non-verbal therapy by colour, which was used at a parent-child treatment unit at Oranim college, and she trained other psychologists (English Wikipedia). Hebrew Wikipedia says she worked as a psychologist on her kibbutz.

In 2004 she gave Kovner's pistol to Yad Vashem (English Wikipedia). Hirsh Glick's Yiddish song "Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt", is said to commemorate her (English Wikipedia).

Death and memory

Vitka Kempner died at Ein HaHoresh in February 2012 (JPEF, Hebrew Wikipedia). Hebrew Wikipedia and the infobox of English Wikipedia give 14 February 2012; the text of English Wikipedia gives 15 February. Rich Cohen's book The Avengers tells the story of Kempner, Kovner and Korczak (JPEF).

Other fighters from the same region include Yitzhak Arad. If you are searching for a relative who fought, see Find a partisan record.