lt
type: Country
archival history: Most of Lithuania had been a part of the Russian Empire until it declared independence in February 1918. The city of Klaipėda (Memel), occupied by Lithuanian troops in 1923, had to be handed back to the German Reich in March 1939. The secret additional protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 assigned Lithuania to the German sphere of interest, recognising Lithuania’s interest in the Vilnius area, which had been a part of Poland since the end of the First World War. As a result, Vilnius and its surrounding area came under Lithuanian sovereignty in October 1939. Some five weeks later, the German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation reassigned Lithuania to the Soviet sphere of influence, and on 15 June 1940 the Red Army entered Lithuania. One month later, the country was proclaimed a Soviet Republic. When German troops invaded the USSR on 22 June 1941, Lithuania passed under a German civilian administration and became a Generalbezirk of the Reichskommissariat Ostland. Lithuania was re-conquered by the Red Army from German rule between July 1944 and January 1945. Lithuania’s independence was re-proclaimed in 1990. In 1939, Lithuania had a total population of some 2,900,000 people. On the eve of the German invasion, there were about 220,000 Jews among them, including approximately 80,000 Jews from the Vilnius area and some 15,000 Jewish refugees who had fled from the German-occupied western parts of Poland. Furthermore, among other refugees some 6,000 Jews left the Klaipėda region after March 1939. Immediately after the German invasion began, the Jews were attacked in pogroms. The systematic mass murder of Lithuania’s Jews began in the summer of 1941. By the end of 1941, nearly 180,000 Lithuanian Jews had been murdered. The remaining 40,000 Jews were mostly classified as fit for work and interned in four ghettos – Vilnius (18,000), Kaunas (16,000), Šiauliai (4,700) and Švenčionys (2,000) – or in forced labour camps. There were no mass m…
archival situation: In Lithuania, the state archival system is headed by the Office of the Chief Archivist and consists of five Vilnius-based archives and the County Archives. The Chief Archivist’s Office basically allows free access to all the available fonds, but some restrictions may apply to files containing personal data. For details, see the EHRI extensive report on Lithuania.
research extensive: **A. EHRI approach to Lithuania: Pre-existing research and archival guides, expert support** EHRI’s exploration of Holocaust-relevant archival sources in Lithuania could rely on some important pre-existing research in the field, such as Christoph Dieckmann’s *Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941-1944* (2011), which makes extensive use of archival material available in the country. EHRI also worked closely with the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History in Vilnius, which became a consortium partner during EHRI’s second phase. Thanks to the support of this institution, EHRI has been able to identify important collections in over ten different institutions. There is one helpful archival guide on Holocaust-relevant sources in the Lithuanian Central State Archive, which is written in both Lithuanian and English: - [2011] Žirikova, Galina, *Lietuvos centrinio valstybės archyvo fondai: holokausto Lietuvoje tyrimo šaltinis* (*The Collections of the State Archive of Lithuania: a Source of Research on the Holocaust in Lithuania*), Vilnius: Valstybinis Vilniaus Gaono Žydų Muziejus, 2011. LitvakSIG (Lithuanian-Jewish Special Interest Group) is the primary internet resource for Lithuanian-Jewish (Litvak) genealogy research worldwide. All the data is available via the All Lithuania Database, a freely searchable database which has more than 2,500,000 records transcribed and translated from various archival institutions in Lithuania and abroad: - https://www.litvaksig.org/ **B. Characteristics of Lithuania’s archival system and specific challenges** An important number of Holocaust-related sources and collections were created or are deposited in Lithuania and can still be found in the country’s archives today. The Chief Archivist’s Office allows free access to all fonds. Some restrictions may apply to files containing personal data, but even these can be used either by relatives of the persons named in such files, or for academic survey purposes after applying for a special…
research summary: Relying on pre-existing research and expert support in Lithuania, EHRI has identified over 10 archival institutions in the country which have Holocaust-related collections. A list is provided in the extensive report. EHRI has identified and described over 100 Holocaust-relevant collections in the Lithuanian Central State Archives alone. A somewhat smaller number of fonds have been found and described in other Lithuanian archival institutions. The Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History has collections with Holocaust-relevant material. Such material may also be found at the Judaica Research Centre of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania as well as at the National Museum of Lithuania, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum, Museum of Occupations and Freedom fights, Sugihara House Museum, Samogitian Museum Alka, and at Šiaulių Aušros Museum. EHRI identified a number of archival institutions outside of Lithuania, which hold or may hold collections relevant for Holocaust research on Lithuania. Vast collections on the Holocaust period in Lithuania can be found at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Yad Vashem archive, the Jewish Heritage Museum in NYC collections, the Ghetto Fighters' House Archives, Beit Hatfutsot: Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, and the National Library of Israel. Furthermore, the Belarusian State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art [Belarussskij Gosudarstvennyj Archiv-Muzej Literatury i Iskusstva], the State Archive of the Russian Federation [Gosudarstvennij Archiv Rossijskoj Federacii, GARF] hold collections on Lithuania which may be relevant to Holocaust research, but EHRI has yet to explore their exact nature and importance.
contains transitive: Marijampolė County
contains transitive: Utena
contains transitive: Kaunas
contains transitive: Tauragė County
contains transitive: Alytus
contains transitive: Vilnius
contains transitive: Telsiai
contains transitive: Siauliai
contains transitive: Švėkšna
contains transitive: Šilutė
contains transitive: Klaipėda County
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name: Lithuania