Category Archives: Holocaust

A Return to My Birthplace, Keidan

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Andrew

This article, by the Soviet writer Hirsh Bloshtein (1895-1979), was published Oct 22, 1958, in Morgen Freiheit, a New York City-based Yiddish newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party USA. By H. Bloshtein A journey back to childhood and early youth … Continue reading →

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From ‘The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry’

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Andrew

Keidan by Efraim Oshry The following is an entry from Oshry, Efraim, “The Annhilation of Lithuanian Jewry” (New York, 1995) Originally published in Yiddish as  “Khurbn Lita”. New York, 1951. LITHUANIAN NAME: Kėdainiai RUSSIAN NAME: Keidany LOCATION: A district capital … Continue reading →

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Exodus, Interrupted

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Andrew

The story of Keidan’s Sroelov and Smilg families By Tamar Dothan (Jerusalem) My grandparents, Chaya Smilg and Chaim Ber Sroelov, were married before World War I. Chaim Ber was operating the family’s wholesale beer business, as his father had passed … Continue reading →

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From Darkness to Light

Posted on March 10, 2020 by ACassel

By Rivka Shlapobersky-Strichman (Haifa, Israel)[1] In 1996, representatives of the Spielberg fund, who initiated the archiving of Holocaust survivor’s stories, asked to interview me. I wondered what I could share about my childhood and to my amazement I could gather … Continue reading →

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A Flag Comes Home After 16 Years

Posted on March 8, 2020 by ACassel

Originally published in “Israel Horizons” magazine, Dec. 1956. Miracles can happen even to a flag. Recently, the flag of Gdud Maapilim, of Ken Keidani of Hashomer Hatzair, was brought to Israel, the only flag of the Lithuanian youth movement to … Continue reading →

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In Pursuit of the Murderers

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

Excerpts of letters from Yehuda Ronder, Kaunas After surviving the war as a soldier in the Red Army’s 16th Lithuanian Division, Yudel Ronder returned home to Lithuania and spent the rest of his life there. Throughout the post-war years and … Continue reading →

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A Lament for Keidan

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By Rabbi Y. M. Fishleder  (Mexico) “How deserted lies the city…” (Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:1) How did it happen that my city of birth, Keidan, was left lonely and abandoned, without its holy community? No one is left there to … Continue reading →

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Among the Ruins

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By Chaim Ronder The text of a letter sent to the Keidaner Society of Johannesburg by Chaim Ronder, a partisan during the German occupation. POGEGEN (Pagėgiai, Lithuania) 7 November, 1946 Warm brotherly greetings to you, Jews of Johannesburg – born … Continue reading →

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After the Slaughter

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By Mordechai Karnovsky Spring. Early morning. Only our footsteps can be heard in the street. Here, in front of Rabinovich’s store, is the haberdashery. Above it the Friedlands’ apartment. Looking left – Gurvich’s pharmacy and Wolpert’s shop. Another turn and … Continue reading →

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Young Refugees in Keidan

Posted on March 2, 2020 by ACassel

By Moshe Domb (Kfar Menachem, Israel) After many hardships and torments, we gathered in Keidan, in Lithuania, to continue the training as Kibbutz Manof that began in Włocławek [Poland]. We were all graduates of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, preparing for … Continue reading →

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