Obj. ID: 45585
Jewish Funerary Art Cenotaph of Sonya Madeysker and Yitzhak Wittenberg in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1993
To the main object: Third (Šeškinė) Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania
Who is Commemorated?
Sonya Madeysker and Yitzhak Wittenberg, Jewish partisans in the Vilnius ghetto.
Description:
This cenotaph is a round-headed stele of red granite. The Yiddish acronym for the United Partisan Organization in the Vilnius Ghetto (FTO), is located in the upper part of the stele. Beneath it there are two carvings of shaking hands, under which are identical inscriptions in Yiddish and Lithuanian.
Inscriptions:
In Yiddish:
פ.פּ.אָ.
Translation: FPO (Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsiye, United Partisan Organization)
שיינע מאדייסקער
מיטגליד פון דער פארייניקט-
ער פּארטיזאנער-אָרגאניזאציע
געקעמפט אין געטאָ און אויסער
דער געטאָ ביים ארעסט געשאָ-
סן אין זיך אין יוני 1944 דערמאָר-
דעט אין ווילנער געסטאפּאָ
יצחק וויטענבערג
קאָמאנדיר פון דער פאריינ-
יקטער פּארטיזאנער-אָרגאניזא-
ציע וועלכער איז דעם 16-טן יולי
1943 ארויס פון דער ווילנער
געטאָ אויף קידוש-השם דער-
מאָרדערט אין ווילנער געסטאפּאָ
In Lithuanian:
Šeina Madeiskerytė
Jungtinės partizanų orga-
nizacijos narė kovojusi
gete ir už geto ribų
Arešto metu iššovė į save
1944 m birželio mėn. nužudyta
Vilniaus gestape.
Icchokas Vitenbergas
Jungtinės partizanų orga-
nizacijos vadas, kuris iš
Vilniaus geto 1943 m. liepos
16 d. nuėjo kankinio mirties
priimti. Nužudytas Vilniaus
gestape.
Translation:
Sheina Madeysker, a member of the United Partisan Organization. Fought in the ghetto and outside of the ghetto boundaries. Shot herself during the arrest in June 1944. Murdered in Vilnius Gestapo.
Yitzhok Wittenberg, the commander of the United Partisan Organization, who was on July 16, 1943, was turned over from the ghetto for martyrdom. Murdered in Vilnius Gestapo.
Commissioned by
Former Bund member and FPO fighter Samuil Kaplinsky, and his wife FPO activist Hiena Borovska (Kaplinsky), with help from friends, former FPO members and partisans from Israel, USA, Canada and Australia (Guzenberg 2021, 702).
sub-set tree:
Sonya (Sheyne) Madeysker was a liaison of the FTO - the United Partisan Organization in the Vilnius Ghetto. After the annihilation of the ghetto, she was caught by the Nazis and murdered by the Gestapo.
Yitzhak (Yitsik) Wittenberg (1906–1943), a member of the underground Communist Party of Lithuania, was the first commander of the FTO. On July 15, 1943, the Nazis demanded that the heads of the ghetto turn him in, and on June 16 he turned himself in to the Nazis, probably committing suicide shortly thereafter.
This and other cenotaphs in the Šeškinė cemetery were erected on the initiative and through the efforts of former Bund member and FPO fighter Samuil Kaplinsky, and his wife FPO activist Hiena Borovska (Kaplinsky), with help from friends, former FPO members and partisans from Israel, USA, Canada and Australia (Guzenberg 2021, 702).
The Lithuanian Jewish Community annually commemorates the Day of Victory over Nazi Germany by laying wreaths at these monuments (Guzenberg 2021, 702).
Agranovskii, Genrikh and Irina Guzenberg. Vilnius: Po sledam Litovskogo Ierusalima. Pamiatnye mesta ereiskoi istorii i kul’tury, 2nd ed. (Vilnius: The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 2016)., p. 686.
Guzenberg, Irina, Vilnius: Traces of the Jewish Jerusalem of Lithuania. Memorable Sites of Jewish History and Culture. A Guidebook (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2021)., 702.
Guzenberg, Irina. Vilnius: Pamiatnye mesta evreiskoi istorii i kul'tury (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2013)., 72-73.