Lithuanian Judaica

Posted on August 8, 2012

From the collection of Audrius V. Plioplys MD

Although the emphasis of the Hope and Spirit program was Stalin’s atrocities, it is important to mention another atrocity that took place at the same time and same place. Approximately 200,000 Lithuanian Jews were killed under the German Nazi occupation, 1941-1945. At that time, the Jewish community was about 7% of the total population, and was almost totally destroyed. Similar mass killings took place across all of Europe, leading to the estimated death of 6 million Jews.

Prior to these horrific events, the Lithuanian Jewish community, for several centuries, played a very important role in education, culture, economics and business. Lithuania was considered to be the “Jerusalem of the North.” During my childhood, my father repeatedly commented that the Lithuanian culture was second, in the world, only to the Jewish culture! I do not know how he arrived at this conclusion, but he certainly did admire the Jewish world.

I have been able to collect over 200 of what appear to be extremely rare items of Lithuanian Judaica. Much of it has been water damaged, ripped, crumbled, and chewed upon by rodents. The items deal primarily with commercial and banking transactions–in and of themselves, of little consequence or importance. However, given the total destruction of Jewish materials, these items are a testimonial to the Lithuanian Jewish culture, to those who were able to survive for centuries, under difficult circumstances, and who were able to demonstrate remarkable Hope and Spirit.