The Avengers
By (Author) Rich Cohen
Vintage Publishing
Vintage
2nd November 2001
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Second World War
Modern warfare
European history
Other warfare and defence issues
940.534793
Paperback
272
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 16mm
193g
'Gripping and even inspiring' Sunday Times When they were not yet twenty years old three young Jews left their families in Western Poland and came to the Lithuanian ghetto of Vilna. Abba, leader of the young people in the ghetto and Rushka and Vitka were his deputies. Together they organised the first underground movement in Europe, mapping the sewers and using the tunnels beneath the city to smuggle food and weapons into and out of the ghetto. In 1943 they escaped the ghetto and led their band of resistance fighters deep into the forests of Poland, where they lived for the remainder of the war. From here, they bombed the occupied city they loved. When the war was over Abba, Vitka and Rushka went to Israel, but they did not forget what they had learned in Vilna and in the forest.
Rich Cohen is the author of Tough Jews. He has written for the New Yorker, the New York Observer, the New York Times and many other magazines. He is currently contributing editor at Rolling Stone and lives in New York City.