Category Archives: Literature

Aharon Pick’s Memoir

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Andrew

We all have hopes and expectations for the new year. Mine are topped by the coming publication of a project I’ve been working on for three years: The translation of Aharon Pick’s Holocaust memoir, written from 1942-44 in the ghetto of Šiauliai. Continue reading →

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Aharon Pick, Holocaust Witness

Posted on May 8, 2021 by Andrew

Late in the winter of 1943, Dr. Aharon Pick helped put Jewish infants to death. Assisted by other doctors and nurses in the makeshift hospital of the Šiauliai ghetto, he euthanized them with heroin and morphine, in one instance resorting … Continue reading →

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The History of Keidan

Posted on July 26, 2020 by ACassel

By B. Cassel Originally published in 1930 by the Keidaner Association of New York. Original footnotes appear in roman type; translators’ and editors’ notes in italic. –––––––––––––– Foreword Framed within this brief account of Lithuania’s general history, the reader will … Continue reading →

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The Printed Version

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Andrew

Much of the material on this website got here via a project initiated several years ago by David Solly Sandler, a native of Johannesburg and Litvak descendent, who has compiled an impressive print library of material on Lithuanian Jews, there … Continue reading →

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Hirshel Bloshtein, Yiddish Poet

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Andrew

By Monty Starr (Birmingham, UK) Hirshel Bloshtein 1895-1978 My mother’s uncle was the well-published Yiddish author Hirshel Bloshtein. Hirshel lived in Czernowitz from 1932 until his death in 1978. Hirshel was born in Kėdainiai, Lithuania to Dovid Bloshtein, a poor … Continue reading →

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My Brother

Posted on March 11, 2020 by ACassel

By Hirsh Bloshtein First published in the anthology “Horizons” in Moscow in 1965. (“Composed after the author’s visit to the mass grave in Keidan.”) Reprinted in the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book.  “In memory of my brother, Mane-Yosl, the wonderful storyteller.“  … Continue reading →

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Mama

Posted on March 11, 2020 by ACassel

By David Wolpe From the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book.  Nineteen forty-one. May In Lithuania the sun is molten with red lead   Father says, with sadness in his face, that Mother, unfortunately, is lying in hospital   I waited not … Continue reading →

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My Youth in Keidan

Posted on March 11, 2020 by ACassel

By Hirsh Bloshtein From the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book.  My youth in Keidan, come back to me, I just want to hear your voice once more It’s not yet time to say the final “stop” and cut the string for … Continue reading →

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Keidan, My Town

Posted on March 11, 2020 by ACassel

By Nathan Berger (Meyer Yanusevers) Originally published (in Yiddish) in the 1950 anniversary booklet of the Keidaner Society of Johannesburg. Reprinted in the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book.  With simple words, in a few score lines I will set down, to … Continue reading →

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Thinkers and Doers

Posted on February 27, 2020 by ACassel

From “Yahadut Lita” Vol. 3, Tel Aviv, 1967.  Einhorn, Aharon (1884-1942) Journalist, born in Keidan. He studied Talmud until he was 17. Completed secondary school in Paris, afterwards studied at the Sorbonne. He began his career as a journalist in … Continue reading →

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