On January 21, 1942, representatives of Zionist youth movements convened in the Vilna Ghetto, resolved to mount a resistance, and founded the United Partisan OrganizationΓÇöthe Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO) in Yiddish. The FPO was an outgrowth of the discussion held on the night of December 31, 1941, in which the poster concerning "Lambs to the slaughter" was read out and the Jewish youth movement leaders were urged to organize for struggle against the Germans, in the awareness that the Germans intended to subject the Jews to genocide. Yitzhak Wittenberg, a representative of the Communists, was chosen as commander. The task of the FPO was to make preparations for armed resistance that would be offered the moment the Germans came to liquidate the ghetto. The members of the new organization were divided into five-person underground cells that were combined into platoons and companies. All the parties and youth movements that united for resistance were represented in the FPO command. The FPO sent representatives to other ghettos in order to establish contact, apprise them of the genocide campaign underway, and spread the idea of resistance and rebellion. The FPOΓÇÖs main problem and constraint was the procurement of weapons.
