Tag Archives: Lithuania

Yudel Ronder’s Story

Yehuda “Yudel” Ronder (1923-2016) was among the small number of Keidaner Jews who remained in Lithuania after the Holocaust. His story is both singular – a heroic tale of survival and persistence – and representative of the lives and experiences … Continue reading

Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Return to My Birthplace, Keidan

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

Posted in Holocaust, Memoir, Soviet Union | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

From Darkness to Light

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

Posted in Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Personalities | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Pursuit of the Murderers

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

Posted in Holocaust, Yizkor Book, Zionism | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Young Refugees in Keidan

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

Posted in Emigrants, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Personalities, Soviet Union, Zionism | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Series of Narrow Escapes

By Eliyahu Koenig I belonged to the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz (community) in Włocławek (Poland), which included mainly those comrades from the cells in Warsaw, Lodz and Kalisz. When the war broke out and the Germans began their swift campaign of … Continue reading

Posted in Holocaust, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

In the Lithuanian Division

By Eliezer Lipman (Tel Aviv) I was born in Keidan in 1924. My father, Shmerel (Shmaryahu) Lipman, had a grocery store in Smilga (now Smilgos) Street, in a house that he had inherited from my grandfather.  The whole street had … Continue reading

Posted in History, Holocaust, Israel, Memoir, Soviet Union, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Destruction of Keidan

By David Wolpe (Johannesburg) Originally published in the Yiddish journal, “Fun Letstn Khurbn” in Munich, 1948; and in English in 1950 by the Keidaner Sick Benefit and Benevolent Society of Johannesburg. By June 24, within days after Germany launched its … Continue reading

Posted in History, Holocaust | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

From the Ministry for Jewish Affairs

Letter from the Ministry for Jewish Affairs, Division of Communal Matters No : 193/64 Kovno 13 January 1922 Document No:43736 To: The Congregational Committee in Keidan We are currently carrying out specific statistical investigation of the Jewish soldiers in our army, … Continue reading

Posted in Interwar, World War I, Yizkor Book | Tagged , | Leave a comment

1930s Status Report

By Ben-Alexander Written about 1937, and published in 1951 in “Lita” [Lithuania], pp. 1587-9[1].  The town now consists of some 9,000 souls, a third of them Jews. The economic situation of the Jews has become very hard. Commerce has completely … Continue reading

Posted in History, Interwar, Yizkor Book | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment