Documenting the Vilna Ghetto Library
Judy Baston
[email protected]
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 NaziOccupied 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.
List of Readers in
Vilna Ghetto
Library (VGL)
M-45
JM/17165
List of Workers in
VGL 19/9/41
List of Workers in
the VGL and other
Judenrat
Institutions3/11/41
List of Workers in
the VGL and other
Judenrat
Institutions
10/41-11/41
List of Readers
with a Subscription
to the VGL,
Arranged in
Alphabetical Order
List of Workers and
Volunteers in the
VGL 4/43-5/43
Card Files of
Readers in the VGL
List of Readers in
the VGL who did
not Return Books
to the Library,
1942
List of workers in
the VGL who have
blue cards
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
M-45
JM/17165
Pgs
Names
3
93
1
31
YVS ID
9114504
9109809
Archive
Orig Citation
Lang
LAGD
R-1421-1279
Y
LAGD
R-1421-1257
L
L
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
JM/17165
JM/17165
JM/17169
JM/17168
JM/17168
JM/17167
JM/17167
JM/17166
JM/17166
JM/17166
5
12
45
4
4
7
2
40
25
18
14
40
9110482
LAGD
JM/17166
53
R-1421-1258
Y/G
9109903
LAGD
4411397
LCVA
R-1421-1353
L /P
4411385
LCVA
R-1421-1349
Y
R-1421-1329
L/P
R-1421-1324
P/Y
R-1421-1320
G
R-1421-1294
L/P
R-1421-1293
L/P
R-1421-1292
L/P
4401
33
4
368
3
80
48
36
4411212
4411182
4411170
4410423
4410422
4410421
LCVA
LCVA
LCVA
LCVA
LCVA
LCVA
LCVA
M-45
R-1421-1260
104
4410420
R-1421-1291
L/P
Title of List
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
Card File of
Readers in the VGL
List of Readers in
the VGL who did
not Return Books
to the Library,
1942
List of Readers in
the VGL
List of Readers in
the VGL
List of Readers in
the VGL
List of Workers in
the VGL and other
Judenrat
Institutions 1/439/43
List of Workers in
the VGL 8/42-1042
Attendance Lists of
the Workers in the
VGL, 1943
List of Workers in
the VGL and other
Judenrat
Institutions 2/4210/42
List of Workers in
the VGL, etc. who
have a Family
Certificate, 1941
List of Children
from the Vilna
Ghetto who have a
Subscription to the
ghetto library
24/02/1942
YVS Rec Grp
M-45
M-45
M-45
YVS File No.
JM/17166
JM/17166
Pgs
41
48
JM/17166
26
JM/17166
43
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
M-45
Names
80
96
1052
1912
JM/17166
JM/17166
JM/17165
JM/17165
JM/17165
91
25
9
8
50
JM/17165
JM/17165
JM/17167
3468
500
21
25
25
20
7
2
50
55
YVS ID
Archive
Orig Citation
Lang
LCVA
R-1421-1290
L/Y
LCVA
R-1421-1289
L/Y
LCVA
R -1421-1288
P
LCVA
R-1421-1287
P
LCVA
R-1421-1286
P
LCVA
R-1421-1285
Y/P
LCVA
R-1421-1268
Y
LCVA
R-1421-1265
Y
R-1421-1264
Y
LCVA
R-1421-1263
Y
LCVA
R-1421-1259
Y/G
LAGD
R-1421-1321
Y
4410418
4410417
4410415
4410412
4410409
4410403
4410354
4410348
4410344
LCVA
4410343
4410302
9115410