Lithuanian Jewry: Its Birth and Destruction

The destroyed Great Synagogue in the Vilna Ghetto

The destroyed synagogue in Mir, Belarus

The synagogue in Slobodka, Lithuania

Synagogue ruins in Vilna, Lithuania

A Circumcision Done in Secret

The Germans decreed upon the inhabitants of the Kovno Ghetto that any baby born would be shot together with his/her mother. Is it possible to describe the panic and fear upon receiving this decree? The main question was: How would it be possible to hide babies who were born? The Jews did not submit to the decree. We said to ourselves, "we do not have the power over life, and we do not want to destroy the Jewish people"… Therefore, they began to hide the babies.

I cannot forget the case of a circumcision that I was present at… a secret circumcision in the ghetto. Yitzchak Bloch was married for five years, and they had no children. And here in the ghetto, after the decree was passed, God blessed the them with a child. They lived in Block 3 in the ghetto, where there was also a vocational school for children. The couple hid in this building, because they believed that the noise of the machines and the blows of the hammers would override the screams of the baby, and that's where the circumcision took place. When the mohel (person who performs the cirumcision) was about to begin his work, we suddenly heard the screeching of a car in front of the building and Gestapo men emerged. Panic gripped us. The mohel's hands began to shake. We were all at a loss; what should we do now? How would we save the baby and mother? We all shook from fear, but the strong one amongst us was the mother who turned to the mohel: "Hurry up and circumcise the boy!" - she shouted - "You see, if they came to kill us, the boy will at least di as a Jew!" We heeded the call of the heroic mother - the child was circumcised in the shadow of death.                                                        

Rabbi Ephraim Oshry (The Destruction of Lithuania)

German soldiers on the street in Telz, Lithuania

A cohort of Mir Yeshiva students

Faigaleh, the Daughter of the Rabbi

In the Vilna ghetto, a special kind of women's movement arose for the purpose of observing Shabbat and the values of Judaism, at the head of which stood a twenty-year-old girl "Feigel of the Rabbi", the daughter of Rabbi Beigel of Trochenbrod in Volhynia. She lived together with other young women, teachers and former students of the "Bnot Yaakov"… Most of those who belonged to the movement would gather at 9 HaHakdesh Street and would pray together and say chapters of Psalms… On Shabbat, the women of this movement learned the weekly Torah portion with the commentaries of Rashi and other commentators, Ethics of Our Fathers, the laws from the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), and books on morals. With time, the "study hall of women" movement grew and moved to "the Kosher Kitchen" at 31 HaAshkanazim Street.

Many of Feigel's friends would carry small prayer books with them, and on the inside of the cover was written: "The skies and the heavens, the earth, and all that is upon it, were created only for the purpose and use of man"; And after this it said: "To you, O Lord, I will lift up my soul"; And finally: "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the world, who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to sanctify his name and the name of Israel in public."

(M. Dvoradzski)

Jews in the Vilna Ghetto

The Telz Yeshiva building in Lithuania

The Character of Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski

Rebbetzin Wolbe tells of the gatherings of yeshiva students at the home of her father, Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski.

Every Friday night, it was customary for the students who were still in the Slobodka Yeshiva to gather in our home. My father would give over Torah lessons and words of strength and encouragement.

These young men were broken and torn in body and soul, they remained isolated, the only ones left from their whole families, and the hard work they performed in the German factories completely exhausted them. The words of the Torah and the encouragement that father showered on them was a source of strength and reinforcement for them to continue and not break.

In his words you could sense the deep and consistent preparation for the sanctification of G-d's name. He even suggested to them that they all sign to keep certain observances as a merit to stay alive (one of the few who survived was Rabbi Mordechai Zuckerman z"l who later was the rabbi of the Prushim synagogue).

1) Faith 2) Shabbat observance 3) Family purity 4) Caution from eating non-kosher foods 5) Charging interest 6) Wasting time that could be used for Torah study 7) Love of the People of Israel 8) Kindness 9) Contentment 10) Trust in G-d 11) Education of children 12) The Land of Israel

(Rebbetzin Rivka Wolbe, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski, "Faith in the Night")

Members of “Tiferet Bachurim” in Kelme, Lithuania

Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski, the spiritual overseer of the Slobodka Yeshiva in Kovno, Lithuania

Torah that I Learned by Heart: “Tiferet Bachurim"

Among the Jews of the ghetto there were many boys and girls who sat and studied Torah. Among them, the members of the Yeshiva stood out in particular. At the beginning of the ghetto period, many of these young people preferred not to work, even though this meant very limited food rations. After the ghetto was forced to provide slave labourers for the construction of the airport in the suburb of Aleksotas, these boys were also forced to part with their books and enlist for slave labour.

Against this backdrop, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, the right-hand man of Rabbi Kahana Shapiro, initiated the establishment of "Tiferet Bachurim". Every night, after the end of work, children, boys, and young men gathered there for hours of joint study. Their life constantly under threat, facing unimaginable hunger and weakness, the young people continued to study and teach. This continued until the liquidation of the ghetto.

As a child and member of Tiferet Bachurim, I can testify that every day we felt it would be our last day of living. We went to our work for ours, slave labour, and faced its difficulties over and over again.

Once, after I finished a lesson at Tiferet Bachurim, I went out with a friend [...] While walking and memorizing our learning, my friend stood up and said: "Master of the world, I do not have the audacity to ask you for life. All around me thousands are being killed and murdered, and how can I ask you for life? But not to have the privilege of being in yeshiva - I cannot give that up! Master of the world , I want to learn your Torah!"

Then the two of us cried; I will not forget this my entire life. These were the children of the ghetto who learned Torah. My holy friend perished in his hiding place when the ghetto was liquidated.

(Testimony of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Gibraltar, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem Archive)

The heads of the Mir yeshiva, Rabbi Yerucham, Rabbi Kamai, and Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel

Bais Yaakov in the Kovno Ghetto

I see it as an obligation for me to tell about the activities in the Kovno Ghetto of Bais Yaakov, headed by the known woman involved in the community, Mrs. Ella Szmulewitz.

Who can describe the joy, splendour, and happiness that were seen on the faces of the Jewish girls, when they would gather in the narrow room of Ella Szmulewitz at Furman Street 8, not far from the famous Slobodka Yeshiva. There, in the narrow room, she lectured them on matters of faith and trust in G-d and the great mitzvah of kiddush Hashem (santification of G-d's name). "You must be strong, my dear girls," answered Ella Szmulewitz in an emotional voice with tears glistening in her eyes, to a group of girls who came to ask whether to go to work as forced labourers or to try to find a secret place to hide.

Members of Bais Yaakov accepted into their ranks many young women whose parents and entire families had perished, leaving them feeling lost and desolate; the Bais Yaakov girls succeeded in instilling in them strength and courage to bear the severe suffering of ghetto life.

(Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, Destruction of Lithuania)

The 1930 cohort of rabbis from the Ponovezh

The Japanese entrance visa belonging to a Mir Yeshiva student in Shanghai

A cohort of students and teachers of the Yavneh school in Telz, Lithuania

Students of the Mir Yeshiva in Kobe, Japan

Ponovezh Yeshiva students, Lithuania

Students of the Mir Yeshiva arriving in Kobe, Japan in 1940

The 5689 (1928) cohort of Slobodka Yeshiva students and staff, Kovno, Lithuania

Rabbi Yosef Yehuda Leib Bloch, the head of the Telz Yeshiva

Books that were printed by the Mir Yeshiva while in Shanghai

Jews in the marketplace in Vilna, Lithuania

Orphans in the Kovno Ghetto

Rabbi Avraham Dobar Kahane Shapira, the rabbi of Kovno, 5631-5703 (1871-1943). Perished in the Kovno Ghetto.

Jewish children in the Kovno Ghetto

The students of the cheder in Ponevezh with their rabbis and Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman

Jews entering the gates of the Ninth Fort, in the suburbs of Kovno, where they were murdered

A cohort of Telz Yeshiva students

Self-Sacrifice for Keeping Shabbat in the Vilna Ghetto

Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Farber z"l, a student of the Radin Yeshiva, who was privileged study under the Chafetz Chaim rabbi, resided in the Vilna Ghetto during the Holocaust. In his memoirs, we collected instances of self-sacrifice in order to keep Shabbat.

"Meanwhile Shabbat arrived. All of us had to prepare food for Shabbat, as well as for Sunday, when the workers were changed. I already clarified the laws of observing Shabbat in the ghetto. We have a group of religious men, we meet almost every other day in the ghetto. Rabbi Yosef Shub's building is also in the group. Shalom and Yaakov. As well as two students of Rabbi Velveleh Brisker, the head of the Brisk Yeshiva, who remained in Vilna and did not have time to go to Shanghai... Based on many clarifications, we know the laws of Shabbat, non-kosher food, and the like. After clarifying, we agreed that the work in the yard, on the machine for cutting the hay to mix the fodder for the animals, is part of the biblically mandated prohibition against work on Shabbat. Therefore, I planned and began to prepare all the workers two days before Shabbat, so that on Friday we would all be free to do this work, operating the machine for cutting the hay and preparing a decent amount, so that no Jew would commit a biblical prohibition of breaking the Sabbath…"

(Zachor, Part 3, Page 152)

Jews being expelled to the Kovno Ghetto

Jews in the Kovno Ghetto

A Torah in the Kovno Ghetto

"When we lived next to to the ghetto gate, an important rebbetzin approached my brother, Rafael, and asked him to help her move a Torah. It was not easy to move a Torah in the ghetto, the matter involved a great risk to one's life. It was possible to transfer the Torah inside of a bag, and to carry it on one's back like a package of clothing, but my brother decided that this was not respectful to the Torah. Thus, despite the great danger in the matter, my brother wrapped the Torah in material and carried it in his hands. He kissed it, and quickly closed the wrapping."

"I walked after him, in case he needed assistance. All the shutters in the houses were closed for fear of the Germans, but curious eyes looked at us through the slits when we passed by a closed window. It was opened by the tenants. They sent kisses to the Torah scroll, and immediately closed the shutter out of fear. This is how our path continued along all the streets, the shutters opening when we passed with the wrapped Torah scroll."

"I saw with my own eyes the great affection of the Jewish People for the holy Torah. My dear brother, Rafael, managed to reach his destination with the Torah."

(Testimony of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Gibraltar, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem Archive)