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A Book of Remembrance |
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Edited and Compiled by Rose Lerer Cohen and Saul Issroff This is the culmination of over five years of research into the names of those killed in the Holocaust in Lithuania. Following a pilot study, and after consulting with Holocaust researchers, it was clear that no substantive record of the names and particulars of Lithuanian Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust existed. The primary aim was to locate lists relating to the Jewish men, women and children exterminated during the Holocaust in Lithuania, and to publish a remembrance book. By perpetuating the name, the victim is brought back from anonymity and an identity is preserved. A further objective was to structure a comprehensive database of these names. This database can be used as a research tool to study and analyse the Jewish community of Lithuania prior to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) on June 22, 1941, the Holocaust in Lithuania, and some patterns of deportation. Contacts and working relationships were established with numerous research institutions, Holocaust organizations and private individuals in Israel, the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Lithuania and England. These included : Israel:
Beit Lochamei Hagettaot library and archives Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel library and archive Association of Vilna Jews in Israel library and Ohel Yizkor United States of America:
New York Museum of Jewish Heritage Library, Oral History archives YIVO Institute for Jewish Research library and archives Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Lithuania:
The opening of archives in Eastern Europe has yielded new relevant archival material. This is not a historical study; it is a compilation of names of victims and a guide to available resources. Due to the multiplicity of methods by which people were killed in Lithuania, these lists can never be complete or final. The book " The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945: A Book of Remembrance, by Rose Lerer Cohen and Saul Issroff, is published by Gefen: Jerusalem and New York, 2002. A background to the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania is given, and sections on deportations, ghettos and camps, the Einsatzgruppen, place names, filmography, bibliography and some personal testimonies are given. The main portions of the book are lists of names of those who perished, from the main cities of Vilna and Kovno and from many other mass murder areas. Necrologies derived from Yizkor books relating to Lithuania are listed. Lists from Soviet sources such as KGB and NKVD lists are given, as are those from Dachau, Stutthof and other camps. Dr Stephen D. Smith, of Beth Shalom Holocaust Center, Nottingham has written a very moving introduction on the importance of names in perpetuating Holocaust memory. This extensive work is comprised of four volumes. The first is a detailed history of the Holocaust in Lithuania, providing a historical context in which to consider the final three volumes, which feature the lists of those who were interned in ghettos, and those who perished during the terrible years of 1941-1945. This comprehensive history also include important information, such as a list of Yahrzeit (Memorial) dates of Lithuanian Jewish communities, and detailed reference lists of films, books and articles on the Lithuanian Holocaust. The Holocaust in Lithuania: 1941-1945 A Book of Remembrance not only serves as a memorial to Lithuanian Jewry, but at last provides a memorial to the names the men, women and children who have their place in Jewish memory, and now too, have an eternal, physical remembrance. Gefen Publishing Company Jerusalem and New York www.israelbooks.com The publisher has a discount structure for sponsored donations of books to libraries and other institutions (minimum of 5). If you have a local library, Jewish Genealogy Society or Holocaust Institute etc. that you want to send it to, please contact the publisher. Go to www.israelbooks.com and scroll down This will be also be available on Jewishgen Mall  http://www.jewishgenmall.org/newproduct.asp |
