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Oral history interview with Irena Veisaite

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 2004.738 | RG Number: RG-50.030.0505

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    Oral history interview with Irena Veisaite

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Irena Veisaite, born on January 9, 1928 in Kaunas, Lithuania, describes her family; the divorce of her parents in 1938 and staying with her mother in Kaunas, where she attended a Yiddish school; not experiencing much antisemitism before the war; traveling to Berlin in 1938 to be with her father and returning to Kaunas in 1939; her plans to flee to Helsinki that failed because her flight was scheduled to leave on the day that the war started in Poland; staying in Kaunas with her mother and going under the control of Soviet forces; losing her home; the German invasion on June 22, 1941; her mother’s arrest and murder; going to live with her aunt, who was her only surviving family member after several brutal massacres in her town; the negative Jewish stereotypes that arose in Lithuania because of Nazi propaganda; moving into the ghetto with her aunt in late 1941; the assistance that Lithuanians gave the Nazis in maintaining the ghetto; having to do forced labor until she became sick with dystrophy and had to stay home for six weeks; the organization of cultural activities, like orchestra performances, in the ghetto; escaping from the ghetto and going into hiding with families and in a children’s home in Vilnius; her experiences with other people who have survived the camps or who went into hiding; and Lithuania’s role in the Holocaust.
    Interviewee
    Irena Veisaite
    Interviewer
    Nathan Beyrak
    Date
    interview:  2004 September 07
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Genre/Form
    Oral histories.
    Extent
    4 videocassettes (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Veisaite, Irena, 1928-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak, project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Irena Veisaite in Lithuania on September 7, 2004. The interview was received by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Branch in January 2006.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:03:15
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn518074

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