Josef Hermatz, member of the Jewish Avengers, dies at 91
The partisan fighter and member of the Jewish Avengers left behind a storied history from Lithuania to Israel; 'He belonged to a generation that is going extinct. A generation of leaders that can definitely be used as a role model for the younger leaders of today.'
Hermatz was born in January 1925 to a well-established family in Rokiškis, Lithuania. With the occupation of Vilnius by the Nazis, he joined the United Partisan Organization which was based in the Vilna Ghetto. Hermatz successfully managed to escape to the Rudniki forest and together with the partisans, conducted acts of sabotage against the Nazis and collaborators.
"After dad lost his family, he decided to join the resistence," says Ronel Hermatz, Josef's son. "He smuggled fighters through the sewers to the forests where they fought with Abba Kovner's group until the end of the war. After Lithuania's liberation, the organization and my father left the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel where they joined the Avengers. The goal of the group, which was under the command of Abba Kovner, was revenge against the German people. They chose a few large cities in Germany and dad was responsible for Nuremberg, where he was to take revenge against as many Germans as possible."
In one of their operations, members of the Avengers planned to poison Germany's water supplies with poison Kovner got from the Weizmann Institute. The Jewish population found the idea to be very radical and Kovner was arrested on a ship on his way to Europe. Just before his arrest, he managed to throw the poison into the sea and the plan was never implemented.
In another operation, members of the group managed to poison bread meant for Nazi POWs and members of the SS. "The number of casualties was never officially reported, but they got an important message across—the Jews had not forgotten what the Germans had done to them," said Hermatz.
Hermatz concerned himself later in life with bringing Jews to Israel. During his work at the Jewish Agency, he chartered ships and managed to bring around 100,000 Jews from Eastern Europe and North Africa to Israel. "He belonged to a generation that is going extinct. A generation of leaders that can definitely be used as a role model for the younger leaders of today," said Ronel Hermatz.
