The Paper Brigade of Vilna

Authors

Maeghan O'Conner, University of Arkansas

Keywords

Jewish diaspora, Lithuania, preservation, curation, WWII

Abstract

For the Jewish community in Europe, threats to their life, culture, and community had become a real burden, even before Nazi-occupation. An ever marginalized and terrorized lot, efforts to collect Yiddish history and literature had not been particularly successful. That is why the presence of the Libraries and Archives in the "Jerusalem of Lithuania," or Vilna, which had made efforts to preserve and research Yiddish culture, was so important and why their fall in 1940 was so devastating. This work looks at the actions of everyone involved, from the fearless smuggling of the Paper Brigade to efforts to collectivize and preserve what has survived.

Recommended Citation

O'Conner, Maeghan (2021) "The Paper Brigade of Vilna," The Ozark Historical Review: Vol. 49, Article 4.

Available at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/ohr/vol49/iss1/4