Josef Glazman

Josef Glazman (1913 – 7 October 1943 ) was a Lithuanian-Jewish resistance leader in the Vilna Ghetto. A member of the Revisionist Zionism movement prior to the German invasion of the Baltic states in 1941, afterward, he took part in the resistance and youth movements in the ghetto. He also worked in the Jewish-run ghetto administration – first in the police, then later in the housing department. Glazman's relationship with the head of the ghetto, Jacob Gens, was difficult and led to Glazman's arrest several times. Eventually, Glazman left the ghetto with a group of followers and formed a partisan unit in the Lithuanian forests. His partisan band was surrounded in October 1943, and Glazman and all but one of the members were killed by the Germans.

Early life Josef Glazman was born in 1913 He became head of the Betar youth movement in Lithuania in 1937, and at some point served in the Lithuanian Army. He was also a member of the Zionist-Revisionist political movement and was the editor of the Revisionist newspaper Hamdina. It was a militarized underground resistance group against the Germans. Glazman also was in charge of two of the FPO's battalions, In June 1942, Glazman changed jobs from the ghetto police force to the ghetto's housing department, Glazman also helped to select ex-military personnel to help train FPO members. Glazman was arrested by the Jewish ghetto police in October 1942 and spent several weeks in jail until being released in December. The freeing of Glazman was the signal to the ghetto inhabitants that the FPO existed and that there was a group organizing for armed resistance against the Germans in the ghetto.

Glazman was questioned repeatedly by the police over the next few months, but was not arrested again.

Although the Germans ambushed Glazman's group and killed a third of them, the rest reached the forest in July 1943.

Partisan activities and death Once in the Naroch Forest, Glazman's group formed a partisan band named "Nekama" ("Revenge") and became a part of a larger Soviet-organized partisan force commanded by Fyodor Markov. But in September, the Soviets stopped supporting the Jewish unit, so Glazman and his followers switched their allegiance to a local Lithuanian-commanded partisan organization.

German forces in the area of Vilnius began to hunt in earnest for partisans in September 1943. Glazman's band attempted to leave the area but did not succeed. They were discovered on 7 October 1943, and all but one of the group were killed. The one survivor was a young woman.