Soviet Army wrist compass used by a young Jewish Lithuanian partisan

Khona Padison was born in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania to an Orthodox Jewish couple, Perets and Rakhel Kronik Padison. He had one sister, Kheina-Maia (Hena). His mother Rakhel was born in approximately 1900, in Vilno, Russia (Vilnius, Lithuania), to Itzik and Kheina Kronik. His father Perets was born in 1903, in Ukmerge, Russia (now Lithuania), to Mordekhai and Sara Padison. Perets had one brother, Shmuel. Khona and Hena were raised in the large Jewish community in Kovno. Khona’s uncle Shmuel married Khaia and they had a son, Gdalia. In summer 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. They abolished Jewish social and cultural institutions and closed Hebrew schools. In June 1941, Germany occupied Lithuania. Before and during the invasion, there were Lithuanian initiated pogroms. By November, German mobile killing units, assisted by Lithuanian auxiliaries, massacred most of the Jews throughout the country. In July, Khona, his sister, Hena, and his parents, Perets and Rakhel, were forced into the Kovno ghetto, and most likely used as forced labor. In fall 1943, Khona and Perets escaped the ghetto, just before it was converted to Kauen concentration camp. They made their way to nearby Rudnicki forest, where they became members of the partisan group, Death to the Invaders. Khona and Perets were assigned to a reconnaissance unit with 30-40 fighters, 90 percent of them Jewish. The group was part of a large network of resistance units, which worked to help people escape the ghettos and attacked German forces and supply depots. Khona's reconnaissance duties included scouting around an intended ambush site for information useful for planning attacks. Khona participated in scouting missions until June 1944. In early July, the Soviet Army was approaching the region. The Germans evacuated Kauen and burned down the camp. On August 1, the Soviet Army, with partisans from several units, including Death to the Invaders, liberated the region. Khona later learned that his mother Rakhel and sister Hena had been killed in the camp earlier that year. Several members of his paternal family were killed in the Ukmerge ghetto, including his grandfather Mordekhai, aunt Khaia, and cousin Gdalia. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. Khona and his father Perets stayed in Lithuania. Perets married Slava Schuster Padison, Rakhel’s cousin. Khona married Ada and the couple had a son. They all eventually immigrated to Israel and settled in Rehovot. Perets, 96, died in 1999, in Gedera, Israel.

The compass was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992 by Arik Padison, the son fo Khona Padison.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Arik Padison, in memory of Rachel and Hena Padison, his grandmother and aunt

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.