us-005578-irn523212
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn523212/alternateIDs/1
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
title: Margaret Kagan photograph collection
has record set type: Item
has or had subject: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/vocabularies/ehri-terms/701
identifier: irn523212
biographical history: Margarita Shtromaite (Mara, later Lady Margaret Kagan) is the daughter of Jurgis (b. 1894) and Eugenia Shtromas (b. 1901). Margarita was born on July 12, 1924 in Riga, Latvia, and grew up in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania. Her younger brother, Alexandras (Alik), was born on April 14, 1931. Though their father was born in Lithuania, their mother, Eugenia, was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. After the Russian Revolution, she fled to Germany to escape the Bolsheviks. Jurgis had left Lithuania to study economics in Belgium and fought for the French Army in World War I. After Lithuania became independent, her returned home and earned a law degree. He joined the Lithuanian Foreign Service and became an economic counselor in the embassy in Berlin, Germany. While stationed there, he met Eugenia. After a whirlwind romance, they returned to Lithuania. Jurgis Shtromas then left the Foreign Service to run the main office of the Lithuania State Lottery. Unlike many Lithuanians, the Shtromas family lived a secular assimilated lifestyle. Margarita was one of the only Jewish students who attended her Lithuanian high school. Lithuania remained independent for the first year of World War II, but on June 15, 1940, the Soviet Army marched into the country. Almost exactly one year later, on June 22, 1941, Germany invaded Lithuania. During the first days of the German occupation of Kovno, Lithuania nationalists integrated a series of attacks against the local Jewish population whom they blamed for their year of Soviet rule. On June 27, they rounded up approximately fifty Jewish men and beat them to death in the Lietukis garage on Vytautas Prospect. Jurgis Shtromas was among those killed. A few days later, Lithuanian partisans raided the Shtromas’ house and confiscated their valuables. In August, Kovno’s Jews were ordered to move to a ghetto in the suburb, Vilijampole. Almost immediately, Germans began rounding up groups of Jews and killing them in a series of “aktions.” Though Marg…
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn523212/acquisitions/1
has or had holder: us-005578
type: RecordSet
scope and content: The collection consists of 25 photographs relating to the experiences of Margaret Kagan and her family before and during World War II. Margarita (Mara) Shtromaite (later Lady Margaret Kagan) was born in Riga, Latvia, and grew up in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania.
record resource extent: folder 1
record resource structure: The Margaret Kagan photograph collection is arranged in a single series.