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Chaim Yellin
Chaim Yellin (Hebrew: חיים ילין; Lithuanian: Chaimas Jelinas; 1912–1944) was a Jewish partisan leader of the resistance movement in the Kovno Ghetto during the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II.
Chaim Yellin was born in the town of Vilkija to a Jewish family. His parents, Eliezer Yellin and Esther Rivel, spoke Hebrew, which was the language of instruction for Jews in the town at the time.
During World War I, Jews were expelled from areas close to the Eastern Front by order of the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Russian Army in 1915, and his family was pushed to Voronezh. There they witnessed the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. As a result, his father changed his views considerably and Yiddish became spoken more in their home.
The family returned from Russia to Lithuania in 1921 and settled in Kaunas. Upon their return, his father founded a Jewish-general library in the city, which operated alongside the Kultur Lige.
Chaim Yellin was educated and grew up reading a lot, which led to him being known as "The Book" by his friends. During his school career, he had to adjust. In Voronezh he began his studies in Russian. In Kaunas, he moved to Yiddish, but because he was not in the fourth grade, he entered the Hebrew Gymnasium where he studied Hebrew until 1932. In addition, his studies at the Vytautas Magnus University in the Faculty of Economics was entirely in Lithuanian.
Yellin began publishing theater reviews about performances of Jewish groups in Kaunas. He moved from writing on these subjects gradually to reports and descriptions of street life and the market, town and village, and especially the difficult condition of the workers. He was one of the most active members of the left-wing young writers group, and was active in organizing literary and cultural evenings in the fields of literature, theater, music and poetry.
On June 24, 1941, a year after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Nazi Germany occupied Kaunas. Yellin and his family tried to escape into the Soviet Union, but were captured by the Germans. They wandered for a while on the roads and forests and eventually came back to Kaunas and were sent to the ghetto. While there, Yellin hid under the pseudonym "Kadishon" and disguised his appearance for fear of being captured by the Germans. By October, the Germans had carried out a number of massacres and deportation, and less than half of Kaunas' Jewish community was left, which previously numbered over 40,000.
Three underground resistance groups were known to have been active in the ghetto by the fall of 1941. Yellin was the commander of one of them, which dealt mainly with collecting information on the fronts, providing relief to veterans of the movement, and caring for the children of missing fighters.
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Chaim Yellin
Chaim Yellin (Hebrew: חיים ילין; Lithuanian: Chaimas Jelinas; 1912–1944) was a Jewish partisan leader of the resistance movement in the Kovno Ghetto during the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II.
Chaim Yellin was born in the town of Vilkija to a Jewish family. His parents, Eliezer Yellin and Esther Rivel, spoke Hebrew, which was the language of instruction for Jews in the town at the time.
During World War I, Jews were expelled from areas close to the Eastern Front by order of the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Russian Army in 1915, and his family was pushed to Voronezh. There they witnessed the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. As a result, his father changed his views considerably and Yiddish became spoken more in their home.
The family returned from Russia to Lithuania in 1921 and settled in Kaunas. Upon their return, his father founded a Jewish-general library in the city, which operated alongside the Kultur Lige.
Chaim Yellin was educated and grew up reading a lot, which led to him being known as "The Book" by his friends. During his school career, he had to adjust. In Voronezh he began his studies in Russian. In Kaunas, he moved to Yiddish, but because he was not in the fourth grade, he entered the Hebrew Gymnasium where he studied Hebrew until 1932. In addition, his studies at the Vytautas Magnus University in the Faculty of Economics was entirely in Lithuanian.
Yellin began publishing theater reviews about performances of Jewish groups in Kaunas. He moved from writing on these subjects gradually to reports and descriptions of street life and the market, town and village, and especially the difficult condition of the workers. He was one of the most active members of the left-wing young writers group, and was active in organizing literary and cultural evenings in the fields of literature, theater, music and poetry.
On June 24, 1941, a year after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Nazi Germany occupied Kaunas. Yellin and his family tried to escape into the Soviet Union, but were captured by the Germans. They wandered for a while on the roads and forests and eventually came back to Kaunas and were sent to the ghetto. While there, Yellin hid under the pseudonym "Kadishon" and disguised his appearance for fear of being captured by the Germans. By October, the Germans had carried out a number of massacres and deportation, and less than half of Kaunas' Jewish community was left, which previously numbered over 40,000.
Three underground resistance groups were known to have been active in the ghetto by the fall of 1941. Yellin was the commander of one of them, which dealt mainly with collecting information on the fronts, providing relief to veterans of the movement, and caring for the children of missing fighters.