On March 14, 1918, Abba Kovner, a Jewish Resistance fighter, was born into a Jewish family in Sebastopol, Russia. The most notable parts of his childhood were his years at a Hebrew high school in Vilna, Lithuania, and as a member of the Ha-Shomer Ha-Za’ir youth movement.After the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in June 1940, all of the Jews were relocated to the Vilna Ghetto. Kovner and a few of his friends managed to escape and live in a Dominican convent. After hearing of the mass deportation and murder of the Jews, he returned to the ghetto to encourage an uprising against the Nazis. Kovner and other members of the established Jewish resistance escaped from the ghetto at night and executed sabotage missions against the Nazis. In 1941, the Nazis began to liquidate the Vilna Ghetto. Kovner gave a rousing speech to multiple Jewish youth organizations in the ghetto, saying, “Jewish youth! Do not trust those who are trying to deceive you. Hitler plans to destroy all the Jews of Europe; we will not be led like sheep to the slaughter! True, we are weak and defenseless, but the only reply to the murderer is revolt! Brothers! Better to fall as free fighters than to live by the mercy of the murderers. Arise! Arise with your last breath!”. This speech inspired the groups to band together and create the United Partisan Organization (UPO).In July 1944, during the last days of the Vilna Ghetto liquidation, Kovner led approximately 300 UPO fighters into the woods, where they helped the Red Army recapture Vilna from the Nazis. After the war, it was suspected that Kovner and his wife, along with other members of the Jewish resistance, tried to poison thousands of Nazis, but this accusation could never be proven.At the end of World War II, Kovner emigrated to British-occupied Palestine and helped other Jewish refugees in their travels. Kovner testified in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the S.S. official who is known for aiding in the construction and implementation of the Final Solution. Kovner joined the Haganah in 1947 and fought in the War of Independence as part of the Givati Brigade. He was active in Israeli politics from the foundation of the state until his death in 1987, but he never adopted a formal political role or title.