Lohamei HaGeta'ot (, ''lit.'' The Ghetto Fighters) is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in northern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located in the western

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In it had a population of .

History

The kibbutz was founded by

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

in 1949 on the coastal highway between

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

and

Nahariya Nahariya () is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. As of , the city had a population of . The city was founded in 1935 by Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton River, Ga'aton (riv ...

, on the site of an abandoned British Army base and the depopulated

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of al-Sumayriyya. Its founding members include surviving fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (notably Yitzhak Zuckerman, ŻOB deputy commander and Zivia Lubetkin, one of the few female leaders of ZOB), as well as former

Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance under Nazi rule, Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators during W ...

and other

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors. Its name commemorates the

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s who fought the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. Historian Tom Segev describes Zvi Dror's four-volume history of the lives of the Holocaust survivors who founded the kibbutz as one of the most important books ever written about Holocaust survivors in Israel." Anita Shapira, who translates the title as "Testimony pages," describes Dror's book as "one of the first projects to coax the mute to speak" about the Holocaust. Leon Uris spent a week interviewing residents of the kibbutz and recording their experiences as part of his research for the novel ''Exodus''.

Economy

In the mid-1980s the kibbutz acquired the Tivall vegetarian food products factory, which has become a mainstay of its income. Other branches include a large dairy and agriculture and a bed and breakfast. The kibbutz is currently undergoing a process of

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

. It operates a bed and breakfast for tourists to the area.

Archaeology

Alongside the kibbutz are the extensive remains of an aqueduct which supplied water to

some 6 km away, until 1948. The aqueduct was originally built at the end of the 18th century by Jezzar Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Acre, but was completely rebuilt by his successor, Suleiman, in 1814.Moreh Derech trip report
/ref> Amatsuliman01

Museum

The kibbutz operates the Ghetto Fighters' House, a history museum commemorating those who fought the Nazis. Adjacent to the museum is a large amphitheater used frequently for concerts, assemblies, and ceremonies hosted by the museum.

Notable people

* Zvi Dror * Zvika Greengold * Zivia Lubetkin * Yitzchak "Antek" Zukerman * Chavka Folman Raban

References

Bibliography

* Tom Segev: ''The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust'' (2000, ) (p. 449-455)

External links

Ghetto Fighters' House websiteKibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1949 Populated places in Northern District (Israel) 1949 establishments in Israel Polish-Jewish culture in Israel