Natali Beige
Chronicle of Destruction: The Jews of Raseiniai County During World War II and the Holocaust
2016 | Full access | Submitted in Hebrew
Although an extensive historiography of the Holocaust in Lithuania exists, very little has been written about the history of the Jewish communities in provincial Lithuania. Most research addresses the history and fate of Lithuania’s largest communities, Vilnius and Kaunas. However, the provincial towns in Lithuania are crucial to understanding the Holocaust as well as the development and implementation of the Final Solution in the area. Within the last decade, studies have raised new issues and questions regarding the Holocaust and have placed greater emphasis on developments that took place in the rural areas and provinces of Lithuania, but the subject still remains insufficiently studied.
According to the Jäger Report, Raseiniai County was one of the first places where the murder of women and children took place as early as mid-July 1941. Therefore, a thorough examination of Raseiniai County and its Jewish communities raises important issues and questions and can contribute to scholarship about the rapid and brutal elimination of Jewish towns and villages in provincial Lithuania, and the transition to total annihilation.
This study examines the fate of small Jewish towns (Shtetlekh) in Raseiniai County through an integration of a variety of sources. Creating a synthesis of documents and literature identifies the stages of persecution and extermination, the relationship between the Germans and the Lithuanians, the connection between bureaucracy and ideology, and the various groups of perpetrators involved in the extermination of the Jews in Raseiniai County. In addition, this study can also shed light on the Holocaust in Lithuania in general in light of the fact that more than 50% of Lithuanian Jewry lived in rural areas and provinces. Furthermore, it raises questions that can be relevant to the destruction of Jewish communities in other rural Eastern European areas when considering factors such as the participation of the local population in the murders, their motivations, and how regional dynamics influenced the development of the Final Solution in those areas.
Supervisors:
Dr. David Silberklang
Prof. Hagit Lavsky