EXHIBIT OF THE MONTH

Vilna Ghetto, Kailis forced labour camp, 1941–1944

manuscript in Russian, paper, ink, pencil

The Vilna Ghetto was liquidated on 23 September 1943. In honour of the victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania, a fragment of Grigory Shur's notes is exhibited.

The notes of Grigory Shur (1888 Vilnius - 1944 Stutthof concentration camp) written in the Vilna Ghetto and in the Kailis forced labour camp contain records of the actions of the Nazis in the Vilna Ghetto and the system of massacres in Paneriai. The records are dated, but the date often indicates the time of the event rather than the time when the record was made.

At the time when Shur was imprisoned in the Kailis forced labour camp, his Lithuanian acquaintance, librarian Ona Šimaitė, the rescuer of Jews and their cultural artefacts, hid these notes in the Vilnius University Library. Thus, this chronicle from the Vilna Ghetto has survived to this day.

The diary of Grigory Shur, stored in the funds of the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, consists of: 13 notebooks, 1 notepad and over 300 pages of manuscript of various paper sizes.