Abba Kovner (1918 – 1987) was a Hebrew speaking Jewish partisan leader, and later Israeli poet and writer. In the Vilna Ghetto, his manifesto was the first time that a victim of the Holocaust identified the German plan to murder all Jews. Living underground in the ghetto, his attempt to organize an uprising failed. He later fled through Vilna’s sewers into the forest, joined Soviet partisans, fought and survived the war. After the war, Kovner made his way to Palestine in 1947. He later gave extensive testimony about his war experiences at the Eichman trial. Rarely translated into English, Kovner is considered one of the greatest authors of Modern Hebrew poetry, and was awarded the Israel Prize in 1970.
