JEWISH FORT IN THE FOREST | FANIA YOCHELES BRANTSOVSKY | DR. RACHEL MARGOLIS | BLAMING THE VICTIMS
◊
◊
Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (1922-2024) shows us where she and 99 other Jewish escapees from certain death in the Vilna Ghetto lived and fought the Nazis in this underground fort in the forest now right next door to the German Army’s new Brigade in Lithuania. Click on image for 2007 video.
◊
Question and answer in the German Bundestag of Dec. 2025 now published online
The new German Army 45th Brigade in Lithuania is right next door to the fort
Extensive tree cutting and detritus of firecracker parties have already damaged the unique historic ambience of surrounding forest
Will Germany now show appropriate sensitivity?
Defending History’s section on the fort
Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky’s last wish
2007 video of Fania showing us the forest fort where she and 99 other Jewish escapees from certain death in the Vilna Ghetto escaped to fight against the Nazis with the partisans
Does Germany remember the medal it awarded Fania back in 2009? The medal it awarded Rachel Kostanian in 2021?
Jewish partisan heroes: saga of ‘blaming the victims’
Back in 2008-2010, the Irish ambassador to Lithuania, HE Dónal Denham (left), and UK ambassador Simon Butt (right) frequently visited the Jewish Partisan Fort with Fania and other survivors and were proud to include distinguished visitors from the Western diplomatic corps in nearby Vilnius. Now, in 2026, one hopes the German Foreign Ministry will step up with moral conviction and clarity, and without fear of the far-right Holocaust revisionists in the region. With a new Brigade next door in the forest, it becomes, in the view of the Defending History community, an ethical imperative of historic proportions, and at the same time a magnificent educational opportunity for today’s German Army and its 45th Brigade in Lithuania.
HE Dónal Denhman, Ireland’s ambassador to Lithuania (l.) and HE Simon Butt, UK ambassador, on one of multiple visits with Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky (1922-2024) to the remnants of the Jewish Partisan Fort in the forest, not far from Vilnius, 2009. Photo: DefendingHistory.com.
Please contact elected officials asking them to write to the German government & embassies calling for rapid action to preserve the last disappearing remnant of Jewish Holocaust-era resistance against the Nazis in Lithuania, one that ‘the majesty of history herself’ has put right next door to the massive new German Army 45th Battalion training ground in the same Lithuanian forest. . .