Memorial Books As Sources for Family History
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MEMORIAL BOOKS AS SOURCES FOR FAMILY HISTORY Zachary M. Baker INTROVUCTION ly preceding World War II.3 Taken as a body of As a librarian active in the genealogical literature, they also stand out as "the foremost field, I frequently receive inquiries about memo- source for ethnographic material on traditional rial (yizkor) books. The~e~inquiriesall too of- Jewish life," as an anthropologist who has used ten reveal a host of mistaken impressions that them extensively in his research has remarked.4 people share, about the very nature of yizkor Many -- but not fi -- yizkor books do in- books and the ways in which they can be used by clude lists of names of Holocaust victims as sup- the genealogist. In this article I will try to plements, which< is very much in keeping with correct some of these misconceptions, provide a their function as Holocaust documents. Usually description of the bookst contents and their de- these lists are in Hebrew or Yiddish. (In rare velopment as a genre, and suggest the uses to cases, these Holocaust necrologies do appear in which they can most practically be put, in the the Roman alphabet.) They are often incomplete, service of family history. For reasons that are reflecting only those names known to survivors. explained in the preface to the accompanying bib- Books for smaller communities are likely to have liography of memorial books, I have arbitrarily fuller lists than are books for larger communi- limited my discussion to memorial books for Eat- ties. It is simply much easier to document the W European Jewish communities. pool of families within a small community, espe- Perhaps the most common erroneous impression ciaLly if personal recollection is the primary that people have about yizkor books -- no doubt source of documentation. The same can be said of stemming from the very use of the word "yi~kor~~-- memorial books1 coverage of the communities as a is that they are death registers for European whole. Books for larger communities of necessity Jewish communities, covering a broad span of dec- cover their territory in a more generalized man- ades. The presumption made in this case is that ner than do books for very small communities. yizkor books were generated in pre-Holocaust Eu- This makes them of little use to the genealogist rope, by the hekieeot [organized Jewish communi- who seeks to fill in specific blank spaces on a ties], and that, like the pinban& [community re- family tree. cord books] of the 17th and 18th centuries, they In addition to alphabetical lists, or some- exist only in manuscript (or are printed from old times instead of them, obituary sections paid for manuscripts). A related, but more narrowly de- members of individual families sometimes are in- fined, misconception is that yizkor books are cluded. s Occasionally, lists of Holocaust sur- lists of names of HoRocawt martyrs, pure and vivors or members of the landsmanshaft societies simple. Another assumption that is often made is in Israel or America also appear in memorial that these books have been translated into Eng- books. These lists, too, are likely to be in lish from their original language(s) of publica- Hebrew or Yiddish. tion. This brings us to the language question. But memorial books are not unpublished lists Since yizkor books are compiled by first-genera- of names. Rather, they are printed, collective tion emigrants, they are written in Hebrew or ROC& h&tu&~ of Jewish communities, mainly in Yiddish, the two principal languages tradition- Poland (as defined by its pre-1939 boundaries). ally used by Eastern European Jews. Some books They are customarily published by landsmanshaft are exclusively in one language or the other, societies, whose members in turn form their prin- some are divided into two identical Hebrew and cipal audience. 1 (Some yizkor books, particular- Yiddish sections, and in some books articles in ly for larger communities, appear as separate the two languages are interspersed. In addition, volumes in such series as the "Encyclopedia of a significant minority of yizkor books have sup- the Jewish Diaspora," and are not ublished sole- - plementary sections ranging from a couple to more ly by the landsmanshaft societies>) The primary than a hundred pages, in English or other Europe- aim of the books is to document the history of an languages. These usually consist of transla- the communities, by means of memoirs and personal ted, digested excerpts from texts appearing in testimonies, as well as through articles based on the main section. As a rule, one may expect the secondary sources such as encyclopedias and gaz- earlier books, and those books printed outside of etteers. Israel, to be in Yiddish, while those published The chronological scope of memorial books is in Israel are likely to be entirely or mostly in generally quite limited, at least as far as their Hebrew. 6 (In recent years, the overwhelming ma- in-depth coverage goes.. Since yizkor books rep- jority of memorial books have been printed in resent a firsthand reconstruction of the recent Israel. ) past by survivors of the Holocaust, they are most valuable for their documentation of the Nazist ORlGZNS AND CONTENTS extermination campaigns and the period immediate- The first book to describe itself as a "yiz- kor" book was the Yiddish-language L0dzf2h YLZhoh lists). And since the sections devoted to indi- as well represented. roundings. Book, which appeared in New York in 1943. But vidual obituary notices are obviously paid for by Above all, the number of yizkor books for It is true that relatively few yizkor books models for this type of publication already ex- members of the families who choose to commemorate Jewish communities that have belonged to the So- have been published for individual Jewish commun- isted in the memorial volume for the martyrs of their late relatives, a very limited selection of viet Union since the Revolution is pitifully low ities in Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania. By way the 1919 pogrom in Felshtin (New York: 193717 and individuals memorialized will appear in these by comparison (only 13 items in the Bass list). of compensation, however, comprehensive Hebrew- in the tremendous historical volume, TU~Z~Yoh sections. The lacuna is explained in Yaakov Goldburtls in- language encyclopedic sources for communities in Pinhk [One Thousand Years of Pinsk] (New York.: Two other factors that can limit a yizkor troduction to Sedeh Ek&&nonlau-Dnephop&ow k, these countries do exist. l3 1941). book's usefulness for family history come to which merits citing at length: Over the years, memorial books have evolved mind: These are the uneven quality of articles There are few memorial books for those Jewish ACCESS a fairly standardized format. The 'ttypicalwyiz- to be found within individual books [an important communities in the Soviet Union which the Where, then, can one find the yizkor books kor book will have the following chapters: article by a prominent historian may well be Germans destroyed during World War 11. There cited by Bass, plus those that have been printed I. The early history of the town and its sandwiched in between other articles of indiffer- are many reasons for this: The landsmanshaftn since 1972? In Israel, to be sure, such institu- Jewish community. This is usually based on ent research quality), and the varied quality of [for White Russian and Ukrainian communities] tions as Yad Vashem and the Jewish National and published sources such as the Polish gazet- the books as a whole. Some editors have more raw ... which are the principal factor in pub- University Library (both are in Jerusalem) can be teer (the StowvLik Geogha&iczny) and occasion- material (informants and documents) to digest lishing such books, did not develop in Israel expected to have virtually complete holdings. ally on archival materials. than do others, some are more careful and dis- .... During the interwar period the aliyah But one need not book a flight to Israel in order 11. The town before World War I. His- criminating in their selection and presentation to Israel from the Soviet Union was restrict- to find a yizkor book. Important collections ex- torical sketches and memoirs usually comprise of this material, and some pay undue deference to ed to the utmost. Thus the very basis for ist in widely scattered geographic locations in the body of such a section, as well as of the interests of those who contribute financially organizing such societies was absent, with the United States and Canada. New York, for ex- the next one. to the publication of the books, thus distorting but a few exceptions. In America, too, the ample, has three major Judaica libraries with 111. Between the World Wars. the value of the information contained therein. already existing societies declined because large holdings of memorial books: the Jewish A. Communal and educational insti- Abraham Wein cites the case of the Tarnogrc. of the cessation of immigration from the So- Division of the New York Public Library, the Jew- tutions ; e. g., synagogues, schools, librar- book, whose publication was delayed for six years viet Union during the 1920s and 1930s, unlike ish Theological Seminary Library, and the Library ies, charities. -- the book was printed in 1966 but not distrib- the case of Jews coming from Poland or Lith- of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO B. Social, religious, political, uted until 1972 -- over an editorial dispute. It uania. owns about 400, or 85% of all memorial books pub- and youth movements ; e .g . , Zionist groups, seems that the former chairman of the Tarnogrod One might interject that after World War I1 as lished) . the Jewish Socialist Bund, Agudat Yisrael.