YIVO Announces Discovery of 170,000 Lost Jewish Documents Thought to Have Been Destroyed During the Holocaust

Rare and Unpublished Works Represent the Collective Memory and Cultural History of Eastern European and Russian Jews

New York, NY – October 24, 2017 – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research today announced the discovery of a trove of lost Jewish materials thought to have been destroyed during the Holocaust. The new Vilna Discovery contains never before published literary manuscripts from some of the most famous Yiddish writers as well as numerous religious and communal works. It is a watershed moment for understanding the dimensions of Jewish history and marks an important new chapter in the dramatic story of Nazi looting during the Holocaust, when the Germans were seeking to destroy not just the Jewish people (in Lithuania approximately 90 to 95 percent of the Jewish population was murdered) but their memory and culture.

Consisting of more than 170,000 pages, this trove of materials was first hidden from the Nazis by the YIVO Paper Brigade during WWII and subsequently preserved for decades by Antanas Ulpis, a Lithuanian librarian who saved the documents from the pulping mills and stored them in secret in St. George Church to help preserve both the history of Lithuania and the memory of the Jewish people. He did so at the risk of his life and the well-being of his family and is an unsung hero of the Holocaust.  

“With the rise of nationalist extremism in the world today, this discovery takes on new relevance and urgency.  It reminds us of the perpetual attempt at wiping out a people by erasing their memory from history,” said Jonathan Brent, Executive Director and CEO of YIVO. “But it also reminds us that preserving culture is the work of a community, in this case of Jews and non-Jews working together to save the spirit and memory of a people.  These newly discovered documents will allow that memory of Eastern European Jews to live on, while enabling us to have a true accounting of the past that breaks through stereotypes and clichéd ways of thinking.”

“Now more than ever, at a time of reemerging anti-Semitism, it’s of the utmost importance that we honor and remember the innocent victims of the Holocaust who cannot speak for themselves. This newly discovered collection of tens of thousands of Jewish documents, once thought to have been destroyed during L’Shoah, is a testament to the enduring resolve of the Jewish people. Displaying this collection will teach our children what happened to the Jews of the Holocaust so that we are never witnesses to such darkness in the world again. I want to thank the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for the good work they do and their role in preserving this treasured archive,” said U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer.

“With this discovery Jewish and Lithuanian heritage has become richer and many students and researchers will benefit from it,” said Linas Linkevičius, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs. “Vilnius was the Jerusalem of the North. These resurfaced manuscripts and the virtual reunification of the YIVO holdings will help my compatriots to better understand the importance of Vilna as center of Jewish life. The bonds between Lithuania and YIVO, and Jewish world in general, will become stronger from this day.”

“The most valuable treasures of the Jewish People are the traditions, experiences and culture that have shaped our history. So to us, the documents uncovered in this discovery are nothing less than priceless family heirlooms, concealed like precious gems from Nazi stormtroopers and Soviet graverobbers. We have a responsibility to absorb the traditions, experiences and culture within these manuscripts, poems and letters, and to remember how much more has been lost. May they serve us today by strengthening our identities, and recommitting to ‘Never Again’,” said Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York.

"The troves discovered in Lithuania are the most important body of material in Jewish history and culture to be unearthed in more than half a century, since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” said David Fishman, professor of Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary and author of The Book Smugglers. “The troves are startlingly large in volume, and remarkably diverse in character and subject-matter. All of East European Jewish life passes through your eyes.  It will take researchers many years to digest and analyze these documents. Lovers of culture everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to the heroic ghetto-inmates that rescued these materials from destruction."

The new discovery is of particular note for its wealth of manuscripts, precious religious writings—in Hebrew and Yiddish—record books of shuls and yeshivas; mystical writings, and more. Additionally, the collection contains post-war and wartime materials, such as poetry written while in the Vilna Ghetto by Abraham Sutzkever. All other materials that have previously been found from this time period in Eastern Europe precede the outbreak of WWII.

Some highlights of the collection are below. Items denoted with an asterisk will be on display at YIVO.

1. Lost poems, manuscripts and fragments of Chaim Grade, one of the leading Yiddish writers of the twentieth century;
2. Letters by Sholem Aleichem, whose writings inspired the musical Fiddler on the Roof’s character Tevye the Dairyman;
3. Astronomical Manuscript by Issachar Ber Carmoly, displaying the theoretical contributions being made to society*;
4. Yiddish postcard written by Marc Chagall to Khaykl Lunski, librarian of the Strashun Library in Vilna, 1935;
5. Poems written by Paper Brigade members Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski, including a booklet of ten ghetto poems, in Sutzkever’s own handwriting.*;
6. A never before seen manuscript of a novel by Leyzer Volf entitled In toyznt yor arum: fantastisher roman (A Thousand Years From Now: A Fantasy Novel);
7. Yiddish theatre scripts: Peretz Hirshbein, Miriam (1910), in “German,” with stamps by Russian censor. Sherlock Holmes, translated/ adapted by the head of the Lemberg Yiddish theatre, Norbert Glimer (1883-1926). Both items from the YIVO theatre museum;
8. A letter and Hebrew manuscript by Rabbi Shapiro also known as Devar Avraham. He famously said, "The captain is the last to abandon his sinking ship, not the first. At this time of danger, my place is with the people of my city. I am going to Kovno." He died in the Kovno Ghetto in 1943;
9. Abraham Goldfaden’s early Yiddish poem, Dos Yidele, with censor’s permit from 1883*;
10. Fragments of manuscripts by Yankev Dinezon, author of the first Yiddish bestseller in 1877. A note on one of the manuscripts identifies it as one of the author’s earliest writings.

The discovery is the culmination of YIVO’s successful partnership with the Lithuanian institutions and government and carries on the work by the famed Paper Brigade, which included Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski. The Paper Brigade of Vilna, formed during WWII, was a small group of Jewish intellectuals who took it upon themselves to save as many documents as possible from Nazi destruction, in an effort to preserve the memory of Jewish culture. YIVO was originally founded in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), before the Nazis ransacked and destroyed their building in 1941.

The newly discovered documents more than double previous finds from the basement of St. George Church, which included books and documents found in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The new discovery had been held in a separate room in the church and remained undocumented until now. When combined with the existing Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections, which already contains 1 million documents, YIVO will now have saved approximately 1.2 million original documents from the Jewish world of Eastern Europe.

Ten of the documents from the discovery will be on display at YIVO, located in the Center for Jewish History (15 W. 16th Street) from October 24 – January 2018. These rare treasures of Jewish history and culture from the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project, are on loan from the Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania, and will be on exhibition Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 1:00pm to 4:00pm (by appointment only). The rest of the documents will remain in Lithuania for the time being while YIVO and the Lithuanian government work to archive and ultimately digitize the find. Long term, both are committed to ensuring this important part of history is never lost again and are actively exploring ways to permanently share the materials with the general public and facilitate scholarly research.

Interested parties should contact YIVO to schedule an appointment to view the materials at vilnatreasures@yivo.cjh.org or (917) 606-8290.

For press inquiries, contact:

Rubenstein
Kyle Sklerov
ksklerov@rubenstein.com
(212) 843-8486

Rubenstein
Kelsey Stokes
kstokes@rubenstein.com
(212) 843-9317

Watch the Press Conference:

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story