A Partisan from Vilna

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Atsiminimai; Holokaustas; Vilniaus getas; Vilnius; Žydai; Jews; Memories; The Holocaust; Vilnius; Vilnius ghetto.

ENThe Vilna (Vilnius) ghetto, established by the Nazis in September 1941 and the armed resistance movement which developed in it and subsequently continued the struggle in the forests around Vilna has given rise to a large literature.1 However the bulk of this material is not available in English. Hence there is all the more reason to welcome the appearance of this moving and detailed account written by Rachel Margolis, daughter of a prosperous and well-established Vilna radiologist. Her native town, the 'Jerusalem of Lithuania', certainly has a special place in Jewish collective memory. The capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which had been dynastically linked with the Kingdom Poland since 1385 and joined in a political union in 1569 to create the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it had been a major Jewish centre from the early sixteenth century, the home of many outstanding Jewish scholars, among them the Vilna Gaon, the principal opponent of early Hasidism. At this time, most Jews lived concentrated in multi-occupied houses in their own quarter which had only one gate, at the corner of Niemiecka (today Vokiečių) and Szklanna (today Stiklių) Streets. The center of this area was the shulhoyf, the courtyard of the Great Synagogue, a striking building admired by Napoleon, dating back to 1573. This was the area which was to become the core of the Nazi ghetto. [Extract, p. 11-12]