Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye ( Yiddish : פֿאַראײניקטע פּאַרטיזאַנער אָרגאַניזאַציע ; " United Partisan Organization " ; referred to as FPO by its Yiddish initials ) was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II . The clandestine organisation was established by Zionist as well as Communist partisans . Their leaders were writer Abba Kovner and Yitzhak Wittenberg . Establishment of the FPO . The FPO was formed on January 21 , 1942 in the Vilna Ghetto . It took on the motto : " " We will not allow them to take us like sheep to the slaughter . " " This was the first Jewish resistance organization that was established in the ghettos of Nazi - occupied Europe during World War II , followed by Łachwa underground formed in August 1942 . Unlike in other ghettos – where the underground resistance was coordinated to some extent with the officials of the local Jewish establishment – Vilna ' s Jacob Gens , head of the ghetto , cooperated with German officials in stopping armed resistance . The FPO brought together socialist - Zionists , right - wing conservatives , communists and Bundist s . It was headed by Yitzhak Wittenberg , Josef Glazman , and Abba Kovner . The goals of the FPO were to establish self - defense in the ghetto , to sabotage German industrial and military activities and to join the partisan and Red Army ’ s fight against the Nazis . Abe ( Abba ) Kovner , the movement ' s leader , along with 17 members of local Zionist group Hashomer Hatzair , stationed at a Polish Catholic convent for an order of Dominican Sisters , sheltered from the Nazis by Mother Superior Anna Borkowska ( Sister Bertranda ) , Righteous among the Nations , who was the first to supply hand grenades and other weapons to the Vilnius ghetto underground . Crushing of the revolt . The FPO did not succeed in its mission . In early 1943 , the Germans caught a resistance member in the forest . The Judenrat , in response to German threats , gave Wittenberg over to the Gestapo . The " Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye " organized an uprising . The FPO was able to rescue Wittenberg through an armed struggle and were then able to set up a small militia . The Judenrat did not tolerate this , because the Nazis gave them an ultimatum to end the resistance or face extermination . The Judenrat knew that Jews were smuggling weapons into the ghetto and when a Jew was arrested for the purchase of a revolver , they finally gave the FPO an order to withdraw . The Judenrat turned the people against the resistance members by making them seem like selfish enemies who were provoking the Nazis . Jacob Gens emphasized the people ’ s responsibility for one another . He said that resistance was sacrificing the good of the community . In the end , the people confronted the resistance and demanded their own right to live . The resistance would not fire on the other Jews and they were eventually disarmed and arrested on September 1 , 1943 . When the Nazis came to liquidate the ghetto in 1943 , the members of the FPO again congregated . Gens took control of the liquidation so as to rid the ghetto of the Germans , but helped fill the quota of Jews with those who would fight but were not necessarily part of the resistance . The FPO fled to the forest , where most were able to reach Soviet partisan units . FPO members participated in the liberation of Vilna by the Soviet army in July 1944 .