Tag Archives: massacre

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

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From ‘The Annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry’

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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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

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A Lament for Keidan

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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Mass Graves

By Chaya Gel (Jerusalem) I was born in Keidan, where I lived in 16 Gedimino Street. When the Russians conquered Lithuania the first time in 1940, they nationalized our business and seized our house. I went to live with my … Continue reading

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Ghetto, Resistance and Murder

By Yehuda Ronder (Kaunas) Immediately after Hitler’s forces entered Keidan in June 1941, math teacher Nissan Zaltzburg hung himself. Meir Berger was brutally beaten in the street and died in the hospital. On July 23, 125 people — 95 of … Continue reading

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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

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Heros and Martyrs

By Pesach Weitzer-Chittin (Kibbutz Beit Zera)  Chana Landsberg Chana Landsberg, of blessed memory, was born in Keidan in 1893. She was a very talented girl. She completed the Russian gymnasium for girls in Kovno with distinction in 1911. She excelled … Continue reading

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August 28

  “The mass murder of the Jews of Keidan, together with Jews from nearby Shat [Šeta] and Zheim [Žeimiai] began on the afternoon of August 28, 1941. At the airfield, Soviet prisoners of war were forced to dig a huge … Continue reading

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