The Avengers: A Jewish War Story

I have read many books about Jewish resistance during World War II and this one is among the best I have read. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The book covers the life of Abba Kovner, a Jewish resistance fighter from Vilna, through World War II and its aftermath. At the end of the war, Abba planned and executed acts of revenge against the Nazis. This is described in the book as well as Abba's participation in Israel's War of Independence. The book is well written and easy to read. It gives you two different pictures of Jewish suffering during the war. One picture is that of many of the Jews in the Vilna Ghetto.....one of fear and submission to the Nazi oppression. The other picture is that of Abba and his group of partisans.....one of resistance and hatred of the Nazi oppressors.

Rich Cohen has written an extraordinary tale of heroism and survival during the most horrendous and brutal moment in mankind's history. The tale of these three individuals, Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitka Kempner, shine through as living testimonies in the dark night of the Holocaust. You will not be able to put this book down as you race through the pages of "The Avengers." It is so well written and well documented that you wish you had 20 more books just like this one. It really is amazing how these individuals actually survived this horrible time, but they did in fact prevail and triumph against overwhelming odds. Perhaps the greatest challenge that these people faced in the end was not to end up like the monsters who had persecuted them. Rich Cohen has done an amazing and tremendous thing by writing this book, sharing with the world the incredible testimony of these three courageous individuals. After you finish reading this book, you will never think about the Holocaust in the same way.

This is an important story to tell. For all who continue to believe that the Jews didn't fight back during the Holocaust, I say, give them this book and tell them to read it to the end before commenting.One interesting point that is also made is that there were so many who believed that if they allowed just one more indignity, their lives would be spared. But there was no bottom to that barrel, and they went from having some rights taken away, to living in a ghetto, to having to select people for transport, etc. Yes, there were many who didn't fight back, and this is, too, their story. How do people behave when civilization crumbles? In the clear lens of hindsight, we might all say, "Oh, I would fight back. I would run. I would hide. I wouldn't let them get me." But if you were there, perhaps you would be one of those who thought - just one more indignity will satisfy our tormentors. The book does not demonize those people, for they, too, are a part of what happened.A truly powerful work. I look forward to other works by this author.

I was drawn to this book by the story of Abba Kovner--a Vilna native, a partisan and a poet. Although Cohen's writing is fine, it offers little poetic value. But like other readers, I could not put the book down. This novel-like non-fiction offers many layers. The book opens with the author's discovery of his family and roots in Israel. Cohen's grandmother--one of nine siblings in Plosk, Poland--immigrated to America in 1920. The family intended for everyone to follow, but like so many poor Eastern European Jews, ran out of money. No one else was able to leave. Several years after World War II, Cohen's grandmother learned from a former Polish neighbor that nearly every Jew in Plosk had perished. But her eldest brother's daughter, Ruzka Korczak, had survived as a partisan in the forests near Vilna, fighting with Abba Kovner and Vitka Kempner. She was the only member of the family in Poland who survived.The book swiftly transports readers to the Vilna ghetto and a tale of survival and great courage. Shortly after Hitler and Stalin signed their non-aggression pact and German divisions flooded her area and town, Ruzka determined to move to Warsaw, where she hoped to meet the Zionist Youth Guard, HaShomer HaTza'ir. She planned to return to Plosk a few months later, when things calmed down. About 10 miles outside Warsaw, with the city in flames, she ran into a friend who told her HaShomir had moved to Vilna, in the Russian zone. She traveled three weeks to reach Bialystok and then crossed at night into Vilna, where shortly afterwards she met Vitka Kempner and Abba Kovner.At that time, 200,000 people lived in Vilna, a third of them Jewish. But the Jewish minority was heavily divided into factions--the communists, who distrusted Bundists, who distrusted Zionists, who distrusted Orthodox Jews. All of them distrusted assimilated Jews, and all feared the Soviet police, the NKVD. Threatened with arrest, Vitka fled Vilna, but returned weeks after the Nazis overtook both Vilna and her own location. On September 6, 1941, 30,000 Jews were forced into the Old Jewish Ghetto, where before only 1,000 had lived. By then, the Jewish people were gravely threatened. Abba Kovner hid in a nearby convent. But rumors of the murder of thousands in the forest of Ponar brought him back to Vilna, at Vitka's behest, to hear the story from a single survivor named Sara. At this dramatic juncture, Kovner realized that the Jewish people could escape only by battle. In December, 1941, he told fellow Ghetto residents that Ponar was a death trap and began to search for arms, an effort assisted by a former communist named Isaac Wittenberg, and Joseph Glassman. Together they located, bought and smuggled weapons into Vilna through the sewers, even obtaining grenades from the Mother Superior who had earlier hidden Kovner. Wittenberg was forced to surrender to the Nazis and committed suicide in prison. By 1943, the Germans were taking Jews from the Ghetto by increasing thousands and Kovner

Rich Cohen's book The Avengers truly amazed me. Prior to hearing him speak and reading his book, I had only heard one story of Jewish Life in Europe during the second world war. To hear this other story, the story of Jews who refused to go like sheep to the slaughter, the story of Jews who fought, gives new perspective, and a new understanding of the people that lived in those times.Rich Cohen's book reads far more like a novel than like a historical text, and at times, I found that aggravating. I wanted more details, and fewer assumptions. But, for what this book is, it is trully amazing. I only hope someone will read this book and decide to do the historical research before it is far too late.I highly recommend this book. It made me question what I am doing with my life. "If you have not found something you are willing to die for, you have no reason to live."