Obj. ID: 45580
Jewish Funerary Art Cenotaph of Yosef Glazman in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1993
To the main object: Third (Šeškinė) Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania
Who is Commemorated?
Yosef Glazman (1913-1943), a Jewish partisan leader in the Vilnius ghetto and in the Naroch Forest.
Description:
This cenotaph is a stele made of red granite with beveled upper corners. Glazman’s name in Lithuanian is located in the upper part of the stele, and beneath it there are depictions of a seven-branched menorah and a Star of David. Identical inscriptions in Hebrew and Yiddish are placed beneath those symbols.
This cenotaph is the only one out of the four in the cemetery that has no commemoration in Lithuanian.
Inscriptions:
In Lithuanian:
Josifas Glazmanas
Translation: Josef Glazman
In Hebrew:
יוסף בן ישראל חיים גלזמן הי"ד
חבר מפקדת ארגון הפרטיזנים המאוחדים
בגיטו וילנא וראש מטה של גדוד "נקמה" – גדוד
הפרטיזנים היהודי הראשון ביערות נארוץ.
נפל בקרב נגד הנצים הגרמנים ביום הכיפורים
תש"ד – 9.10.1943
In Yiddish:
יוסף דער זון פון
ישראל-חיים גלאזמאן הי"ד
שטאב מיטגליד פון דער פאראייניקטע פאר-
טיזאנער ארגאניזאציע אין ווילנער געטא.
הויפט פון שטאב פונעם אטריאד "נקמה" -
ערשטער יידישער פארטיזאנער אטריאד אין
די נאראטשער וועלדער. געפאלן אין קאמף
קעגן די דייטשישע נאציס יום כיפור תש"ד
9.10.1943
Translation: Yosef son of Israel Haim Glazman, may God avenge his blood, a member of the headquarters of the United Partisan Organization in the Vilnius Ghetto and the head of the headquarters of the squadron “Nekome” (Revenge) – the first Jewish partisan squadron in the Naroch Forest. Killed in a fight against German Nazis on Yom Kippur 5704 – 9.10.1943.
Commissioned by
Former Bund member and FPO fighter Samuil Kaplinsky, and his wife FPO activist, Hiena Borovska (Kaplinsky).
The cenotaph was funded by former members of Beitar organization (Guzenberg 2021, 702).
2 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Yosef Glazman (1913-1945) was the head of Beitar organization in Lithuania from 1937 to 1940. In the Vilnius Ghetto, he organized an underground group comprised of Beitar members and joined the Jewish ghetto police. In January 1942, Glazman helped found the underground United Partisan Organization (Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye, FPO), and became its deputy commander, in charge of its intelligence department. On June 24, 1943, after the surrender of Yitzhak Wittenberg to the Nazis, Glazman left the ghetto for the forests with a group of FPO fighters, where he formed a Jewish partisan unit. The unit was surrounded on October 9, 1943, and all but one of its members were killed.
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). This cenotaph was funded by former members of Beitar organization (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.