Jews Lithuanians And The Holocaust

Author : Rūta Vanagaitė,Efraim Zuroff
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781538133040

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Our People by Rūta Vanagaitė,Efraim Zuroff Pdf

A famous Nazi hunter and a descendent of Nazi collaborators team up on a journey to uncover Lithuania’s Holocaust secrets. This remarkable book traces the quest for the truth about the Holocaust in Lithuania by two ostensible enemies: Rūta a descendant of the perpetrators, Efraim a descendant of the victims. Rūta Vanagaitė, a successful Lithuanian writer, was motivated by her recent discoveries that some of her relatives had played a role in the mass murder of Jews and that Lithuanian officials had tried to hide the complicity of local collaborators. Efraim Zuroff, a noted Israeli Nazi hunter, had both professional and personal motivations. He had worked for years to bring Lithuanian war criminals to justice and to compel local authorities to tell the truth about the Holocaust in their country. The facts that his maternal grandparents were born in Lithuania and that he was named for a great-uncle who was murdered with his family in Vilnius with the active help of Lithuanians made his search personal as well. Our People exposes the significant role in implementing the Final Solution played by local political leaders and the prewar Lithuanian administration that remained in place during the Nazi occupation. It also tackles the sensitive issue of the motivation of thousands of ordinary Lithuanians who were complicit in the murder of their Jewish neighbors. At the heart of the book, these are the issues that Rūta and Efraim discuss, debate, and analyze as they crisscross the country to visit dozens of Holocaust mass murder sites in Lithuania and neighboring Belarus. This book follows them on their remarkable journey as they search for neglected graves, interview eyewitnesses, and uncover hints of the rich life that had existed in hundreds of Jewish communities throughout Lithuania.

Author : Ellen Cassedy
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2012-03-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780803240223

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We Are Here by Ellen Cassedy Pdf

Ellen Cassedy’s longing to recover the Yiddish she’d lost with her mother’s death eventually led her to Lithuania, once the “Jerusalem of the North.” As she prepared for her journey, her uncle, sixty years after he’d left Lithuania in a boxcar, made a shocking disclosure about his wartime experience, and an elderly man from her ancestral town made an unsettling request. Gradually, what had begun as a personal journey broadened into a larger exploration of how the people of this country, Jews and non-Jews alike, are confronting their past in order to move forward into the future. How does a nation—how do successor generations, moral beings—overcome a bloody past? How do we judge the bystanders, collaborators, perpetrators, rescuers, and ourselves? These are the questions Cassedy confronts in We Are Here, one woman’s exploration of Lithuania’s Jewish history combined with a personal exploration of her own family’s place in it. Digging through archives with the help of a local whose motives are puzzling to her; interviewing natives, including an old man who wants to “speak to a Jew” before he dies; discovering the complications encountered by a country that endured both Nazi and Soviet occupation—Cassedy finds that it’s not just the facts of history that matter, but what we choose to do with them.

Author : Dov Levin
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : 9781571812643

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The Litvaks by Dov Levin Pdf

Discusses some aspects of antisemitism in Lithuania, especially in socioeconomic terms, in the Middle Ages and under the Russian tsars. The 20th-century interwar period saw the introduction of anti-Jewish laws that negatively impacted on Jewish political involvement, economic activity, and physical security, and the situation worsened with a right-wing coup, at which time Nazi influence grew among the German minority. The peak of antisemitism is treated in pt. 4 (pp. 187-247), "World War II, the Holocaust, and the Jewish Survivors". Although Soviet rule in 1940-41 ended many restrictions, it harmed Jews culturally and economically; many were arrested or exiled. The Nazi occupation which followed led to the destruction of Lithuanian Jewry. Even before the arrival of the German army, ca. 10,000 Jews were murdered by Lithuanians. German troops brought the Final Solution, in which Lithuanian collaboration was massive. Discusses ghettos, forced labor, and concentration camps, as well as Jewish partisan resistance. 96% of Lithuanian Jews were killed. Popular antisemitism was revived in postwar Lithuania. The issues of Lithuanian-Nazi collaboration and the Lithuanian association of Jews with communists to justify the massacre of Jews during World War II remained problems in the postwar and even post-communist periods.

Author : Arūnas Bubnys
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 64 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : STANFORD:36105122158988

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The Holocaust in Lithuania Between 1941 and 1944 by Arūnas Bubnys Pdf

A booklet presenting a brief account of the events of the Holocaust in Lithuania, divided into three periods: June-November 1941, when, through pogroms and Nazi mass shootings, 80% of Lithuanian Jews were murdered; December 1941-March 1943 - a period in which the Nazis exploited the Jewish work force; and April 1943-July 1944, when the remnants of the Lithuanian Jews were killed. Focuses on the ghettos in Kaunas and Vilnius, and mentions Jewish resistance as well as help rendered to Jews by some Lithuanians. Includes photographs.

Author : Alfonsas Eidintas
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 534 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : 9955961384

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Jews, Lithuanians and the Holocaust by Alfonsas Eidintas Pdf

Author : Silvia Foti
Publisher : Regnery History
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781684511082

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The Nazi's Granddaughter by Silvia Foti Pdf

Hero–or Nazi? Silvia Foti was raised on reverent stories about her hero grandfather, a martyr for Lithuanian independence and an unblemished patriot. Jonas Noreika, remembered as “General Storm,” had resisted his country’s German and Soviet occupiers in World War II, surviving two years in a Nazi concentration camp only to be executed in 1947 by the KGB. His granddaughter, growing up in Chicago, was treated like royalty in her tightly knit Lithuanian community. But in 2000, when Silvia traveled to Lithuania for a ceremony honoring her grandfather, she heard a very different story—a “rumor” that her grandfather had been a “Jew-killer.” The Nazi’s Granddaughter is Silvia’s account of her wrenching twenty-year quest for the truth, from a beautiful house confiscated from its Jewish owners, to familial confessions and the Holocaust tour guide who believed that her grandfather had murdered members of his family. A heartbreaking and dramatic story based on exhaustive documentary research and soul-baring interviews, The Nazi’s Granddaughter is an unforgettable journey into World War II history, intensely personal but filled with universal lessons about courage, faith, memory, and justice.

Author : Alvydas Nikžentaitis,Stefan Schreiner,Darius Staliūnas
Publisher : Rodopi
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN : 9042008504

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The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews by Alvydas Nikžentaitis,Stefan Schreiner,Darius Staliūnas Pdf

The Lithuanian Jews, Litvaks, played an important and unique role not only within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but in a wider context of Jewish life and culture in Eastern Europe, too. The changing world around them at the end of the nineteenth century and during the first decades of the twentieth had a profound impact not only on the Jewish communities, but also on a parallel world of the "others," that is, those who lived with them side by side. Exploring and demonstrating this development from various angles is one of the themes and objectives of this book. Another is the analysis of the Shoah, which ended the centuries of Jewish culture in Lithuania: a world of its own had vanished within months. This book, therefore, "recalls" that vanished world. In doing so, it sheds new light on what has been lost. The papers presented in this collection were delivered at the international conferences in Nida (1997) and Telsiai (2001), Lithuania. Participants came from Israel, the USA, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Germany, and Lithuania.

Author : Robert van Voren
Publisher : Rodopi
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : History
ISBN : 9789401200707

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Undigested Past by Robert van Voren Pdf

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- Lithuanian Historical Background -- Origins of Anti-Semitism -- Jewish Life in Lithuania between World Wars -- The Holocaust in Lithuania -- Issues of Compliance and Collaboration -- The Human Dimension -- Why Did it Happen? -- From Black and White to Shades of Grey -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- About the Author.

Author : Nancy Schoenburg,Stuart Schoenburg
Publisher : Jason Aronson, Incorporated
Page : 517 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1996-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781461629382

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Lithuanian Jewish Communities by Nancy Schoenburg,Stuart Schoenburg Pdf

Lithuanian Jewish Communities is a remarkable resource for students of Lithuanian Jewish history and for people descended from Lithuanian Jews. This volume lists, in alphabetical order, the major Jewish communities that existed in Lithuania before World War II. The name of each community is accompanied by information about it: when it was founded, the Jewish population in different years, shops and synagogues, and the names of citizens. An appendix locates each town on a map of Lithuania. Since most of the Jewish communities in Lithuania were destroyed in the Holocaust, this volume will be a valuable tool in recreating a picture of Lithuanian Jewry. Other appendices provide member lists from Lithuanian Jewish organizations throughout the world and list agencies that will provide help in further research on Lithuanian Jewry. Descendants of Lithuanian Jews who wish to trace their genealogy will be greatly helped by Lithuanian Jewish Communities.

Author : Harry Gordon
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2013-07-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813143606

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The Shadow of Death by Harry Gordon Pdf

“A shocking story of the fate of Jews in the infamous Slobodka ghetto and the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau.” —B’nai B’rith Messenger Holocaust survivor Harry Gordon recalls in brutal detail the anguished years of his youth, a youth spent struggling to survive in a Lithuanian concentration camp. A memoir about hope and resilience, The Shadow of Death describes the invasion of Kovno by the Red Army and the impact of Soviet occupation from the perspective of the ghetto’s weakest and poorest class. It also serves as a reminder that the Germans were not alone responsible for the persecution and extermination of Jews. “In a Holocaust memoir made unique by its rare depiction of Nazi-occupied Lithuania and by its condemnation of the local Jewish council, Gordon bears witness to the brutality of Lithuanians and conqueror alike as he reconstructs his corner of hell . . . the book makes a tremendous impact.” —Publishers Weekly “A powerful tribute to the human spirit and the will and determination of one human being to survive in a hell not of one’s own making.” —CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly “Preserves the record for the many in detailing major events; the ambivalent behavior of Lithuanians toward Jews; and the community organization, work, and routine of ghetto life.” —Library Journal “A timely reminder of a historic tragedy that the newly created nation would seemingly like to forget.” —The Jewish Post & Opinion “A gripping account of the horrors of the Holocaust from the perspective of the ghettos’ poorest and weakest class.” —Appalachian Quarterly

Author : Keith W. Kaye
Publisher : AuthorHouse
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2011-07-20
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9781463420758

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Jews of Lithuania and Latvia: the Graudans by Keith W. Kaye Pdf

Discovery to Diaspora is a fascinating family journey which breathes life into the times of Jews in Lithuania and Latvia. The Jewish roots in the Baltic Sea region are rife with dualities. In one sense, the region is a beautiful coastal area with large sandy beaches and busy ports. Yet, these same attractions have fraught the region with war and conflict. It is here where the Graudan Family was established. It was also the site in which German Nazis and Latvian collaborators mass murdered thousands of Jews during WWII, including some of the Graudans, (the local population numbered about 7,000 before the war and yet less than 30 Jews remained after the war). Others in the family, through marriage, and the foresight of early emigration survived. Through their individual stories we see their descendents enriching the world with their skills, love, and compassion for life. With the help of genealogy reports, published works, public records, memoirs, journals, diaries, notes, interviews, and personal stories, Keith W Kaye develops a holistic blueprint of Jewish life and times of the Graudan family from the eighteenth to mid twentieth century. Steeped in rich ancestry and history, the personal stories allow the reader to travel to the Baltic and experience past life there in a firsthand way. A vivid picture of Jewish life in Lithuania and in Latvia evolves as the history, politics, and people of the region are explored. Jews of Lithuania and Latvia: The Graudans is also an important contribution to current scholarship of Baltic region Jewry. Along the way, Keith shares his own techniques for discovering the historical and familial facts, his unexpected and enlightening encounters, and his exciting exploration into the depths of his family history.

Author : Karen Sutton
Publisher : Gefen Books
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015079272335

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The Massacre of the Jews of Lithuania by Karen Sutton Pdf

Reports on the Nazi genocide of Jews in Lithuania, dwelling on Lithuanian collaboration in the Holocaust or passive response to it. Describes the Holocaust in Vilnius, Kaunas, and some other places, and Jewish reactions to it, including attempts at resistance. Dismisses theories that the cause of Lithuanian collaboration was the widespread linkage of Jews with communism and the real or exaggerated Jewish role in the Sovietization of Lithuania in 1940-41. Although the traumatic experience of Sovietization exacerbated the ethnic conflict in Lithuania, those Lithuanians who murdered Jews in Kaunas, Vilnius, and elsewhere acted out of pre-existing hatred. The root of this hatred, which manifested itself in the prewar period as well, was economic competition with the Jews and religious and cultural distance from them. Argues that the Lithuanians showed an ability to resist Nazi policies in situations that were vital to them, e.g. concerning mobilization for work in Germany. They could have also resisted the Nazi genocide of Jews, but it was not regarded as vital.

Author : Leyb Koniuchowsky
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0994619529

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The Lithuanian Slaughter of Its Jews by Leyb Koniuchowsky Pdf

"More than five centuries of Jewish life in Lithuania was abruptly ended when Lithuanian Jews were slaughtered en masse in the second half of 1941. The testimonies published here tell of the destruction of Jewish life in Lithuania. Perpetrators of the massacre, most of them Lithuanians, acted with enthusiasm and in many cases without help or supervision from the invading Germans. The testimonies are not pleasant to read. They tell of the horrors and evils inflicted on Lithuanian Jews. Many echo the same pattern of degradation and slaughter: Lithuanians first attacked Jews morally and spiritually, imposing assorted humiliating labours, torture and other evils; then began their physical annihilation. Armed bands of self-described "partisans" took control of Lithuanian towns as soon as the occupying Soviets left. Often, even before the Germans arrived, these bands started to terrorise and abuse the Jewish population: Partisans and others broke into Jewish homes and brazenly looted Jewish property. Jailings, torture, and summary executions began shortly afterward. First to be killed were Jews with Soviet connections; later, any perceived or invented offence could mean execution, or a Jew could be killed for no reason at all. Jews' non-moveable possessions were claimed by their Lithuanian neighbors, particularly the partisans and their families. Eventually, the Jews were taken to pits dug in nearby forests to be shot. Amid the chaos of this organized slaughter, many were buried alive in the pits. At times partisans broke small children on their knees or bashed their heads on trees before throwing them, half dead, into a pit. From the 121 testimonies published here, it is clear that the slaughter of the Jews was widely known." -- From Amazon.com.

Author : Aleks Faitelson
Publisher : Gefen Publishing House Ltd
Page : 532 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN : 9652293644

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The Truth and Nothing But the Truth by Aleks Faitelson Pdf

In this, the authors twelfth book, Faitelson tells the exhaustive and authentic story of the escape from the Ninth Fort at Kovno. Faitelsons original account was published in seven languages. This new edition presents a broad gallery of cynical and cruel Nazi murderers wild beasts on two legs, the organisers and leaders of the mass murder of the Jews of Kovno, as well as the thousands of Jews brought to the Ninth Fort from central and western Europe. At the same time, there is a description of the Actions the mass murders of men, women, children and the elderly whose only crime was to be born to a Jewish mother. At the heart of the story are the corpse-burners, the preparations they made to escape from hell, the escape itself and the fate of the escapees.

Author : Leyb Koniuchowsky
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-11
Category : History
ISBN : 0994619510

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The Lithuanian Slaughter of Its Jews: The Testimonies of 121 Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust in Lithuanian, Recorded by Leyb Koniuchowsky, in Displa by Leyb Koniuchowsky Pdf

More than five centuries of Jewish life in Lithuania was abruptly ended when Lithuanian Jews were slaughtered en masse in the second half of 1941. The testimonies published here tell of the destruction of Jewish life in Lithuania. Perpetrators of the massacre, most of them Lithuanians, acted with enthusiasm and in many cases without help or supervision from the invading Germans.The testimonies are not pleasant to read. They tell of the horrors and evils inflicted on Lithuanian Jews. Many echo the same pattern of degradation and slaughter: Lithuanians first attacked Jews morally and spiritually, imposing assorted humiliating labours, torture and other evils; then began their physical annihilation.Armed bands of self-described "partisans" took control of Lithuanian towns as soon as the occupying Soviets left. Often, even before the Germans arrived, these bands started to terrorise and abuse the Jewish population: Partisans and others broke into Jewish homes and brazenly looted Jewish property. Jailings, torture, and summary executions began shortly afterward. First to be killed were Jews with Soviet connections; later, any perceived or invented offence could mean execution, or a Jew could be killed for no reason at all. Jews' non-moveable possessions were claimed by their Lithuanian neighbors, particularly the partisans and their families.Eventually, the Jews were taken to pits dug in nearby forests to be shot. Amid the chaos of this organized slaughter, many were buried alive in the pits. At times partisans broke small children on their knees or bashed their heads on trees before throwing them, half dead, into a pit. From the 121 testimonies published here, it is clear that the slaughter of the Jews was widely known. Townsfolk saw Jews being confined, tortured, abused and taken away. Peasants with wagons at times helped to transport Jews and their property.Besides that portion of the population that actively participated in the slaughter of the Jews, or engaged in torture or rape, many local people appropriated or "inherited" Jews' houses. The same happened with household property, including the clothes Jews had to remove at the pits before they were murdered. Money and jewellery not taken by the Germans or by those in charge was extorted by townsfolk or rural people.It was common for Jews to entrust their property to Lithuanian friends or neighbors, "until after the war." The mass slaughter meant that most often, this property was never reclaimed. In some cases Lithuanians later betrayed Jews who tried to recover their property.On the other side, there were Lithuanians who were honest, and who risked their own lives and the lives of their family members to help Jews. Today we salute, honour, and thank them. Moreover, it is important to recognize that contemporary Lithuanians are not guilty of the crimes of earlier generations.Yet the current Lithuanian government, unlike the German government, is reluctant to take full responsibility for genocide committed on its territory. Indeed, some of the perpetrators have been honoured as heroes for resisting the Soviet occupation. They have commemorative plaques and streets named after them. None of these "heroes" were prosecuted when alive.The extent of participation in the genocide of Jews and collaboration with Nazis is still downplayed in Lithuania and the current Lithuanian government is seeking to legislate their responsibility away. We hope that this attitude and honouring of criminals will change.David Solly Sandler [email protected]