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LibGuide: Holocaust Studies

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A total of 967 testimonies in the archive have content relating to Lithuania - these were conducted in various languages (including 45 interviews in Lithuanian) and in several different locations (144 in Lithuania).

The archive has interviews with 539 Jewish survivors who were born in Lithuania. They talk, above all, about the three main cities of Lithuania: Vilnius (Vilna), the historical capital of Lithuania but incorporated into the independent country only in 1939; Kaunas (Kovno), the provisional capital city between the wars; and Siauliai (Shavli). The vibrancy of its Jewish religious and cultural life, something described in the testimonies, is notable particularly in Vilnius, which was known as the "Jerusalem of the East".

The changes brought about by the Soviet annexation of Lithuania in the summer of 1940 are discussed: the nationalization of businesses, restrictions on religious life, changes in education, and the deportation of individuals and families to the East.

A number of testimonies talk about Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara, the Japanese vice consul in Kaunas, who in July-August 1940 issued between 1,600 and 3,500 transit visas that enabled Jewish refugees to move from Lithuania to Dutch-controlled Curaçao via Japan and the Soviet Union. The archive includes the interview of his widow, Yukiko Sugihara (in Japanese and English).

The arrival of the Germans in summer 1941 marks another drastic change to life reflected in the Lithuanian testimonies. The role of Lithuanian police and irregulars (e.g. such as the Ypatingi Buriai) in assisting the Germans in the mass killings of Jews is the subject of many testimonies; a small number discuss the Lietuviu Aktyvistu Frontas, the nationalist group formed in Germany in 1940.

Large ghettos were established in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Siauliai. Life in these ghettos is described in considerable detail, as are the major figures (such as Jacob Gens, the head of the Vilna ghetto Judenrat). The archive also includes survivors of lesser-known ghettos on Lithuanian territory (Butrimonys, Erzvilkas, Latkiskes, Kedainiai, Panevezys, Telsiai, Vabalninkas, Vilkaviskis, Zagare, Ziezmariai) and Polish/Lithuanian territory (e.g. Swieciany, Oszmiana, Troki).

Interviewees talk about the massacres of Jews from communities across Lithuania in 1941-42, including the execution sites in the Ponary Forest near Vilnius and the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. Resistance in the ghettos is a major topic of discussion: in particular the Vilna ghetto resistance groups FPO and Yechiel and figures such as Josef Glazman, as well as the resistance in the Kovno ghetto. Many escapees from the ghettos joined partisan groups in the forests.

Survivors describe several labor camps in Lithuania. In the unusual case of the Kailis and HKP work camps in Vilnius, prisoners tried to avoid the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto by hiding there.

Others survived by hiding and by assuming a false identity, sometimes helped by the local population. There are 8 Rescuers/Aid Providers who gave testimonies in Lithuanian. They describe how they and their families were able to save Jews during the war in Kaunas and other locations.