Overview
- Description
- This collection contains materials relating to the Vilna ghetto, its daily life and living conditions in the ghetto, social and cultural work, activities of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) and the Jewish interaction with the German and Lithuanian authorities.The records consists of: maps of the ghetto, 1942, diaries, chronicles and manuscripts on the history of the ghetto by Zelig Kalmanovitch, Herman Kruk, Yitschak Rudashevsky, Szmerke Kaczerginski, personal identification documents such as badges, armbands, identification cards, passes; materials on the ghetto administration and its divisions: health, social relief, distribution and supply, statistics, ghetto police, ghetto court, cultural affairs, labor, education; materials on various cultural groups; the issues of the *Geto yedies* (Ghetto News),1942-43, a weekly bulletin, appearing every Sunday; materials about the partisan groups in and outside the ghetto, including underground publications, and materials on life in the labor and concentration camps; photographs of daily scenes in the ghetto, partisans, destroyed buildings of the YIVO, the Strashun Library, and the Vilna Gaon's synagogue. Also included in this collection are items which relate to Jewish life in Vilna immediately after the Holocaust, and post-war testimonies against war criminals or in praise of righteous gentiles.
- Date
-
inclusive:
1939-1950
bulk: 1939-1944
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Announcements. Armbands. Artifacts. Badges. Circulars. Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.) Correspondence. Diaries. Essays. Identification cards. Maps. Minutes. Photographs. Poems. Posters. Registers. Reports. Drawings.
- Extent
-
6,339 digital images : JPEG.
5 microfilm reels (digitized) ; 35 mm.
- System of Arrangement
- Arranged in 31 series: 1. Maps; 2. Diaries and chronicles of the Ghetto; 3. Notices, orders, announcements, releases, ordinances, etc.; 4. Badges, armbands, and personal documents; 5. Department of Housing; 6. Department of Health; 7. Department of Social Services; 8. Department of Distribution and Care; 9. Relief Committee; 10. Employment in and outside the Ghetto: Slave labor, Brigade Council; 11. “Geto-yedies” (Ghetto News-Bulletin); 12. Statistical Office; General Division; 13. The Ghetto Police; 14.The Ghetto Court; 15. Culture in the Ghetto; General materials of the Cultural Department; 16. The Library and reading room; The bookstore; 17. The school system; 18. The theater; 19. Union of Authors and Actors; 20. The Museum; 21. Cultural institutions; 22. Cultural events; 23. Sports Department and the Youth Club; 24. Ghetto organizations; 25. Ghetto documents; 26. History of the Ghetto; Research works written in the Ghetto, etc.; 27. Partisans; 28. Various materials from inside and outside the Ghetto; 29. Ghettos outside of Vilna; 30. Photographs [The following folders were not microfilmed: #710.1-710.37]; 31. Supplement.
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- This material can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing stations. No other access restrictions apply to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- For scholarly use only, no reproduction without permission. Files shall not be copied or shared in any way with another individual or institution. Information on these files of a personal or confidential nature shall not be shared with third parties, neither through hard copy printouts nor by making copied files. For permission to reproduce documents write to the Chief Archivist, YIVO Archives at: reference@yivo.org.
- Copyright Holder
- Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Jewish resistance--Lithuania--Vilnius--Registers. Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania--Vilnius--History--20th century--Registers. Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania--Šiauliai--History--20th century--Registers. Jewish ghettos--Lithuania--Vilnius--History. Jewish councils--Lithuania--Vilnius--20th century. Jews--Lithuania--Vilnius--Intellectual life--20th century. Jewish children in the Holocaust--Lithuania--Vilnius--Registers. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Lithuania--Vilnius--Personal narratives.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The collection is of mixed provenance. The Vilna Ghetto material was generated by a number of governmental and organizational bodies: German military and civil authorities, Lithuanian municipal authorities, the first Judenrat of Vilna, the Judenrats of Vilna Ghetto No. 1 and Vilna Ghetto No. 2, the numerous departments and divisions of these Judenrats, the cultural institutions and organizations of Vilna, and private individuals. In addition to the documents related to the Vilna Ghetto, there are documents generated in the post war period, collected in the Jewish Museum, and sent by Sutzkever and Kaczerginski to YIVO after the war together with the ghetto materials. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection from YIVO via the United States Holocaust Museum International Archives Project in Dec. 2014.
- Record last modified:
- 2022-07-28 17:55:05
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn90256
Download & Licensing
- See Rights and Restrictions
- Terms of Use
- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
In-Person Research
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-
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