Documenting the Vilna Ghetto Library

Vilna – known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania – had a strong cultural tradition before the Shoah that endured and flourished after the Vilna Ghetto was established in 1941. Many historians believe the most important cultural institution in the Ghetto was the Vilna Ghetto Library, which became the center for Jewish secular cultural life in the ghetto.

In the two years in which the Vilna Ghetto Library functioned, it had 6,800 readers. Documentation from the Vilna Ghetto Library has survived and includes lists of readers in the Library, lists of workers in the Library and even a list of readers who did not return books to the Library.

Most of these lists are in the Lithuanian State Central Archive in Vilnius and are also available in the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem. The table in this handout details the lists available at the Yad Vashem Archives. The table includes the title of the list, the Yad Vashem Record Group, File Number and Record ID Number, the number of pages and number of names in the list, the archive of origin and original citation of the list, and the language(s) in which the list is written (G= German: L=Lithuanian; P=Polish; Y=Yiddish). Abbreviations include VGL= Vilna Ghetto Library; YVS = Yad Vashem; LCVA+ Lietuvos Centrinos Valstybinis Archivas; LADG = Lietuvos Archyvu Generaline Direkcija. I plan to transcribe the alphabetical list of patrons, with 4,401 names, and submit it to LitvakSIG’s publicly searchable All Lithuania Database

Although none of the lists appear to include the names of the books that individual patrons took out of the Library, several documents from Vilna Ghetto librarians provide insight into the sorts of books that circulated – and in what languages. Particularly valuable in this respect are “The Library in the Vilna Ghetto” by Dina Abramowicz and “Library and Reading Room in the Vilna Ghetto” by Herman Kruk, both published in the volume “The Holocaust and the Book.” (see “Suggested Reading” in this handout.)

The ghetto library was opened in September, 1941 at 6 Strashun Street on the site of the Mefitzei Haskalah (Disseminators of Enlightenment) library, with about 45,000 books. During the summer of 1942, about 5,000 people visited the reading room every month. The book collection was 70 percent fiction, 20 percent nonfiction; seven percent children’s literature; and three percent periodicals. As higher quality literature was requested by readers, the ghetto library was able to appropriate collections from other institutions, such as the Realgymnasium, the Ivriyah Gymnasium, and the YIVO Institute..

In addition to the main Library and Reading room, some educational institutions and youth clubs also held small libraries. These were located at the Ghetto prison (200 vols.); Kailis fur factory (150 vols); Yeladim transport office (28 vols); Children’s Home (53 vols), and Youth Club (150 vols).

On December 13, 1942, there was a major celebration marking the circulation of the 100,000th book by the Vilna Ghetto Library. One of the hundreds of attendees at the celebration was 15-year-old- Yitzhak Rudashevski, whose diary entry that day eloquently expressed the meaning of the Library, (see “Suggested Reading”) ”The reading of books in the ghetto is the greatest pleasure for me. The book unites us with the future, the book unites us with the world.” Suggested Reading About the Vilna Ghetto Library

Abramowicz, Dina, Guardians of a Tragic Heritage: Reminiscences and Observations of an Eyewitness, a lecture delivered at the Assn. of Jewish Libraries, Philadelphia, PA June 23, 1998, reprinted by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture

Abramowicz, Dina, The Library in the Vilna Ghetto, pp 165-170, The Holocaust and the Book, ed. Jonathan Rose. Amherst, MA, University of Massachussets Press, 2001.

Balberyszski, Mendel, Stronger than Iron: The Destruction of Vilna Jewry 1941-1945: an Eyewitness Account, Jerusalem, New York, Gefen Publishing House, 2010. pp xxviii, 192, 218.

Kruk, Herman, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-44, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2002. Material on the Vilna Ghetto Library may be found on pp. xxvii, 116-117, 140, 169, 283, 328, 355, 367, 408, 424-425, 443, 469, 473, 500, 504, 574, ill.

Kruk, Herman, Library and Reading Room in the Vilna Ghetto, Strashun Street 6, pp 171-200, The Holocaust and the Book, ed. Jonathan Rose, Amherst, MA, University of Massachussets Press, 2001. (Contains translation of report on the Vilna Ghetto Library presented at the celebration of the circulation of the 100,000th book.)

Ran, Leyzor, Yerusholayim de-Lite, Vol. 2, New York, Vilner Album Komitet, 1974. p. 453.

Rudashevski, Yitzhak, The Diary of the Vilna Ghetto, Israel, Beit Lohamei Haghetaot/Ghetto Fighters House, 1979. pp. 58, 66, 67, 74-75, 86, 90, 106, 127.

Rudavsky, Joseph, To Live with Hope, To Die with Dignity: Spiritual Resistance in the Ghettos and Camps, Northvale, N.J., Jerusalem, Jason Aaronson Inc., 1997. pp 64-66.

Shavit, David, Hunger for the Printed Word: Books and Libraries in the Jewish Ghettos of Nazi- Occupied Europe, Jefferson, N.C. and London, McFarland & Co., 1997. Chapter 1, Jewish Libraries on the Eve of Destruction, pp. 25-28, 37-39: Chapter 6, Vilna Ghetto, pp. 93-112; Chapter 8, Books and Readers, pp. 135-137, 142-143,146.

Shavit, David, Jewish Libraries in the Polish Ghettos During the Nazi Era, Library Quarterly, Vol. 52, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago, Press, April 1982. pp. 112-118.

Sukys, Julia, “And I Burned with Shame,” the testimony of Ona Simaite, Righteous Among the Nations,” Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, 2007.

Sukys, Julia, Epistophilia: writing the life of Ona Simaite, Lincoln, NE and London, University of Nebraska Press, Title of List YVS Rec Grp YVS File No. Pgs Names YVS ID Archive Orig Citation Lang

List of Readers in Vilna Ghetto R-1421-1- Library (VGL) M-45 JM/17165 3 93 9114504 LAGD 279 Y R-1421-1- L List of Workers in 257 VGL 19/9/41 M-45 JM/17165 1 31 9109809 LAGD

List of Workers in the VGL and other L Judenrat R-1421-1- Institutions3/11/41 M-45 JM/17165 5 14 9110482 LAGD 260 List of Workers in the VGL and other R-1421-1- Judenrat Y/G 258 Institutions 10/41-11/41 M-45 JM/17165 12 40 9109903 LAGD List of Readers with a Subscription R-1421-1- 4411397 LCVA L /P to the VGL, 353 Arranged in Alphabetical Order M-45 JM/17169 45 4401

List of Workers and R-1421-1- 4411385 LCVA Y Volunteers in the 349 VGL 4/43-5/43 M-45 JM/17168 4 33 R-1421-1- Card Files of L/P 329 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17168 4 4 4411212 LCVA List of Readers in the VGL who did R-1421-1- not Return Books P/Y 324 to the Library, 1942 M-45 JM/17167 7 368 4411182 LCVA

List of workers in R-1421-1- G the VGL who have 320 blue cards M-45 JM/17167 2 3 4411170 LCVA R-1421-1- Card File of L/P 294 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 40 80 4410423 LCVA R-1421-1- Card File of L/P 293 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 25 48 4410422 LCVA R-1421-1- Card File of L/P 292 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 18 36 4410421 LCVA L/P R-1421-1- Card File of LCVA 291 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 53 104 4410420

Title of List YVS Rec Grp YVS File No. Pgs Names YVS ID Archive Orig Citation Lang

R-1421-1- Card File of LCVA L/Y 290 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 41 80 4410418 R-1421-1- Card File of LCVA L/Y 289 Readers in the VGL M-45 JM/17166 48 96 4410417

List of Readers in the VGL who did R -1421-1- not Return Books LCVA P 288 to the Library, 1942 M-45 JM/17166 26 1052 4410415 R-1421-1- List of Readers in JM/17166 43 LCVA P the VGL M-45 1912 4410412 287 R-1421-1- List of Readers in LCVA P 286 the VGL M-45 JM/17166 91 3468 4410409 R-1421-1- List of Readers in LCVA Y/P 285 the VGL M-45 JM/17166 25 500 4410403 List of Workers in the VGL and other R-1421-1- Judenrat LCVA Y 268 Institutions 1/43- 9/43 M-45 JM/17165 9 21 4410354 List of Workers in R-1421-1- the VGL 8/42-10- LCVA Y 265 42 M-45 JM/17165 8 25 4410348

Attendance Lists of R-1421-1- Y the Workers in the 264 VGL, 1943 M-45 JM/17165 50 25 4410344 LCVA List of Workers in the VGL and other R-1421-1- Judenrat LCVA Y 263 Institutions 2/42- 10/42 M-45 JM/17165 20 4410343

List of Workers in R-1421-1- the VGL, etc. who LCVA Y/G 259 have a Family Certificate, 1941 M-45 JM/17165 7 50 4410302

List of Children from the Vilna R-1421-1- LAGD Y Ghetto who have a 321 Subscription to the ghetto library 24/02/1942 M-45 JM/17167 2 55 9115410