 | Nitzotz: The Spark of Resistance in Kovno Ghetto and Dachau-Kaufering Concentration Camp Subjects: Jews -- Lithuania -- Kaunas -- History -- 20th century; World War 1939–1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Lithuania -- Kaunas; Holocaust Jewish (1939–1945) -- Lithuania -- Kaunas -- Influence; Jews -- Germany -- Dachau -- History -- 20th century; World War 1; Under the brutal conditions of the Dachau-Kaufering concentration camp, a handful of young Jews resolved to resist their Nazi oppressors. Their weapons were their words. During the Soviet occupation of Kovno and, after the German invasion, within the Kovno ghetto, the members of Irgun Brith Zion circulated an underground journal, Nitzotz (Spark). In its pages, they debated Zionist politics and laid plans for postwar settlement in Palestine. When the Kovno ghetto was liquidated, several contributors to Nitzotz were deported to the Kaufering satellite camps of Dachau. Against all odds, they did not lay down their pens. Laura M. Weinrib is a Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in legal history at New York University School of Law. Her grandfather Shlomo Frenkel Shafir was the editor of Nitzotz during the Dachau-Kaufering years and after liberation. |
