Download or read book Our People written by Ruta Vanagaite and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-03-15 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book We Are Here written by Ellen Cassedy and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Nazi s Granddaughter written by Silvia Foti and published by Regnery History. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Massacre of the Jews of Lithuania written by Karen Sutton and published by Gefen Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Vanished World of Lithuanian Jews written by Alvydas Nikžentaitis and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2004 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Lithuanian Jewish Communities written by Nancy Schoenburg and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1996 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941 1945 written by Rose Cohen and published by Gefen Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents lists of names of Holocaust victims, including names of parents, place and date of birth and death, place of residence, and occupation, culled from lists found in various institutions and from private sources. Vol. I includes an introduction on the Holocaust in Lithuania, a list of cities and towns where Jews were massacred, a reference list, Web sites relating to Holocaust localities, maps, variant place names, and testimonies (pp. 120-129). The names are not listed alphabetically, but rather according to the source, which is then divided by the running number of the entry in the source database.
Download or read book Holocaust Education in Lithuania written by Christine Beresniova and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-03-08 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holocaust Education in Lithuania is based on a six-year, multi-sited ethnographic research project that was conducted to analyze the effects of the controversial policies of Holocaust education which were introduced as conditions of membership for access into post-Soviet western alliances. In order to understand how individuals take up transnational policies and programs intended to support democratization, Beresniova delves into rarely discussed issues. She looks at the means through which inherent cultural and political assumptions have had an impact on the ways in which memory and history are used in educational programs. She also scrutinizes the motivating factors for involvement in Holocaust education, such as the importance of community building, civic activism beyond the topic of the Holocaust, and the perceived power of the international community in dictating domestic education policy guidelines. Beresniova contends that educators must acknowledge the political and cultural elements in Holocaust education programs and policies, or risk undermining their own efforts. This book is recommended for scholars of anthropology, education, history, political science, and European studies.
Download or read book Ecologies of Witnessing written by Hannah Pollin-Galay and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An innovative reassessment of Holocaust testimony, revealing the dramatic ways in which the languages and places of postwar life inform survivor memory This groundbreaking work rethinks conventional wisdom about Holocaust testimony, focusing on the power of language and place to shape personal narrative. Oral histories of Lithuanian Jews serve as the textual base for this exploration. Comparing the remembrances of Holocaust victims who remained in Lithuania with those who resettled in Israel and North America after World War II, Pollin-Galay reveals meaningful differences based on where survivors chose to live out their postwar lives and whether their language of testimony was Yiddish, English, or Hebrew. The differences between their testimonies relate to notions of love, justice, community--and how the Holocaust did violence to these aspects of the self. More than an original presentation of yet-unheard stories, this book challenges the assumption of a universal vocabulary for describing and healing human pain.
Download or read book Undigested Past written by Robert van Voren and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2011 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Shadow of Death written by Harry Gordon and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-07-24 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " 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.
Download or read book 1939 written by Šarūnas Liekis and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2010 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This gripping and well-documented account of the history of the town of Vilnius and its surrounding region from the Polish ultimatum of March 1938, which forced Lithuania to open diplomatic relations with Poland, to the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union in June 1940 is set against the evolution of Lithuania's relations with her neighbours during this crucial period. It is a major contribution to the outbreak of war in September 1939 and the subsequent evolution of Nazi Soviet relations. Prof. Liekis presents a remarkable history based on archival sources never before utilized in any English-language study. In revealing the geopolitical, ideological, economic, social and ethnic dimensions of an immense tragedy in the heart of Europe, the author provides a new perspective on the unraveling of a society and nation during the initial days of World War II as prelude to the most violent period in European history."--Publisher's description.
Download or read book The Lithuanian Slaughter of Its Jews written by Leyb Koniuchowsky and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.
Download or read book How Did It Happen written by Christoph Dieckmann and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this compelling book, Lithuanian author Ruta Vanagaite holds an extended conversation with noted historian Christoph Dieckmann. His exploration of the causes and consequences of the Holocaust in Lithuania provides the first overview for general readers that considers the perspectives of all the central groups involved—Jews, Lithuanians, and Germans. Drawing on a rich array of sources in all the key languages—Yiddish, Ivrit, Lithuanian, and German—Dieckmann considers not only the Berlin-based orientation of the German perpetrators but also the space where the Shoah took place—Lithuanian society with its Jewish minority under German occupation. He contends that this “space” of mass crimes is always linked with warfare and occupation. The Holocaust was unprecedented, but he makes a powerful case it cannot be isolated from the other mass crimes that took place at the same time in the same space against thousands of Soviet prisoners of war and forced refugees from the Soviet territories. Dieckmann shows that the Holocaust could not have unfolded throughout German-dominated Europe without the conditional cooperation of non-Germans in each occupied country. Existing antisemitism was radicalized from the 1930s onward, turning Jews, under the enormous stress of unrelenting warfare and often instable conditions of occupation, into what were perceived as deadly enemies. The Holocaust, its history and memory, can only be understood through this broader context. The authors’ searching exchanges illuminate the most profound questions we have as we struggle to understand the Holocaust.
Download or read book Lithuanian Jewish Culture written by Dovid Katz and published by Art Stock Books Limited. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dovid Katz's monumental Lithuanian Jewish Culture is the most comprehensive work ever to appear in English on the cultural, linguistic and spiritual worlds of the Litvaks. The Litvaks are the Jews hailing from the lands of the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its successor modern states - Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, and parts of northern Ukraine and northeastern Poland. This huge folio volume provides an introduction to Jewish history and culture starting with antiquity and leading methodically to the rise of Lithuanian Jewry some seven centuries ago." --Book Jacket.
Download or read book If I Forget Thee written by Riva Lozansky and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Pragmatic Alliance written by Vladas Sirutavičius and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-10 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the political cooperation between Jews and Lithuanians in the Tsarist Empire from the last decades of the 19th century until the early 1920s. These years saw the transformation of both Jewish and Lithuanian political life. Within the Jewish community, the previously dominant integrationists were now challenged both by those who believed that the Jews were not a religious but an ethnic or proto-nationalist group and those who believed that only with the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a socialist state would Jewish integration be possible. Among the Lithuanians, the emergence of a modern national identity became increasingly prevalent.
