This presentation explores the clandestine wartime correspondence between the ghettos of Vilna and Warsaw during World War II, highlighting the dangerous networks of couriers who defied Nazi terror to deliver written and oral messages.
A central case study focuses on Irina Adamowicz, a Polish Catholic scout and social worker recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Adamowicz risked her life carrying dispatches between multiple ghettos, including an undated 1942 letter from Betar leader Joseph Glazman in Vilna intended for Dr. David Wdowinski in Warsaw. Although intercepted and lost following the arrest of Warsaw underground leader Joseph Kaplan, Adamowicz memorized and transcribed Glazman’s message. The letter urged Revisionist cohesion (“Kalt und Fast”) and proactive inter-movement cooperation for the broader Jewish public interest.
The presentation also examines four Yiddish letters written between February and April 1942 by Vilna scholar Zelig Kalmanovich to Yitzchak Gitterman in Warsaw, later recovered from the Oneg Shabat milk-jar archive. Kalmanovich’s letters blend appeals for economic aid with moving reports on ghetto survival, cultural resilience, YIVO archival rescue efforts, and educational initiatives.
Ultimately, these letters and the courageous couriers who carried them reveal the enduring power of human connection, intellectual resistance, and solidarity across isolated ghettos.
