Juozas Vitas (real name Juozas Valūnas; 8 January 1899 – 1943) was a Lithuanian communist. In 1942–1943, he organized the anti-German resistance group, Union for the Liberation of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos išlaisvinimo sąjunga), and established contacts with Polish and Jewish underground. These activities were detected by the Gestapo and Vitas was executed. He was recognized as Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965. He was the seventh and last Lithuanian to receive Hero of the Soviet Union for anti-German resistance.[1]
On 24 February 1943, he co-founded the Anti-Fascist Committee, which was renamed to the Union for the Liberation of Lithuania and which united many Lithuanian pro-communist activists.[5] In April, he became a secretary of the union and editor of its newspaper Tėvynės frontas (Homeland's Front). The union had more than 500 members and supported Soviet partisans.[5] In May, he was elected first secretary of the reestablished Vilnius committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania with several representatives of Polish (including Jan Przewalski of the Union of Active Struggle and later the Union of Polish Patriots)[6] and Jewish (including Yitzhak Wittenberg of Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye)[1] underground. Vitas planned on getting an official approval for these organizations from Moscow and, reportedly, had arranged a meeting with Antanas Sniečkus.[5] However, on 19 July 1943, Vitas' was arrested by the Gestapo and later executed (exact date unknown).[4]
^ abcdefghZizas, Rimantas (2014). Sovietiniai partizanai Lietuvoje 1941–1944 m. (in Lithuanian). Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla. pp. 60–63, 537. ISBN9789955847885.