Obj. ID: 45584
Jewish Funerary Art Cenotaph of Abram Khvoynik, Yankel Kaplan and Asye Big in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1993
To the main object: Third (Šeškinė) Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania
Who is Commemorated?
Abram Khvoynik, Yankel Kaplan, and Asye Big, Jewish partisans in the Vilnius ghetto.
Description:
This red granite cenotaph is a stele with beveled upper corners. The Yiddish acronym FTO, the United Partisan Organization in the Vilnius Ghetto, is located in the upper part of the stele. Beneath the acronym are two glyphs of shaking hands, followed by identical inscriptions in Yiddish and Lithuanian.
Inscriptions:
In Yiddish:
פ.פּ.אָ.
Translation: FPO (Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsiye, United Partisan Organization)
אברהם כווויניק
יעקב קאפלאן
אסיע ביג
מיטגלידער פון שטאב פון דער פארייניקט-
ער פּארטיזאנער-אָרגאניזאציע פ.פּ.אָ. אין
טאָג פון ליקווידירן דעם ווילנער געטאָ דעם
23-טן סעפּטעמבער 1943 געשטעלט א בא-
וואָרפטן ווידערשטאנד און דורך געסטאפּאָ
אויםגעהאנגען געוואָרן.
Translation: Avrom Khvoynik, Yakov Kaplan, Asye Big, the members of the headquarters of the United Partisan Organization.
In Lithuanian:
A. Chvoinikas
J. Kaplanas
A. Big
Suvienytosios partizanų organi-
zacijos štabo nariai. Vilniaus
geto likvidavimo dieną 1943 m.
rugsėjo 23 d. ginklu pasipriešino
gestapui ir buvo pakarti.
Translation: A. Chvoinik, J. Kaplan, A. Big, the members of the headquarters of the United Partisan Organization. On the day of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, September 23, 1943, exerted armed resistance to Gestapo and were hanged.
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:
This and other cenotaphs in the Šeškinė cemetery were erected on the initiative and through the efforts of the 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 while 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.