Survival Strategies of Jews in Baltic Ghettos: Socio-Economic Factor (1941-1944)
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to highlight and analyze the ego-documents of Latvian and Lithuanian Jews about their stay in the Baltic city ghettos. The article does not cover the issue of the survival of Jews deported from the Reich, the organization of the Resistance movement (as one of the methods of survival), the help of the non-Jewish population, as they are separate topics of research.
The scientific novelty lies in the opportunity to show the living conditions of survival of Jews in the urban ghettos of Riga, Daugavpils, Vilnius, Kaunas with a wide involvement of the source base (diary records, memories).
Conclusions. Analyzing the life of Lithuanian and Latvian Jews in large urban ghettos, one can come to the following conclusions: the survival of Jews directly depended on their position, professional specialization, financial situation, living conditions, availability of work, health, and necessary connections. For the vast majority of Jews, life in the ghetto was not full of bright colors, but had a gray, mundane appearance. Only wealthy Jews who had some savings felt more or less secure compared to others. Most of the Jews were starving and begging for alms, mostly young children. The most difficult situation was observed in those families that did not have able-bodied relatives and barely survived at the expense of their own economy or barter trade. Those who had to hide in ghetto shelters for months felt much worse.
Living conditions in urban ghettos cannot be called luxurious, since during the occupation people lived in cramped conditions, but with the benefits of civilization. The heating depended on the condition of the house, but mostly had a stove character. One of the conditions for survival in the ghetto was the availability of medical care and the ability to purchase medicine, as well as not breaking the established rules. The least chance of survival in the ghetto was given to the old, infirm, sick, disabled, mothers with small children, as they were recognized as unfit for work and were the first to be put on the ‘shooting’ lists. As well as families of refugees who were also doomed to extermination.
References
Barkahan, М. (2008). Extermination of the Jews in Latvia 1941-1945: series of lectures. Riga: Society «Shamir» [in English].
Barkahan, M. Aleksejeva, T. & Bogdanova, R. (Eds.). (2022). Materialy po istorii evreev Latvii [Materials on the History of the Jews in Latvia]. Riga: Society «Shamir» [in Russian].
Bubnys, А. (2003). The Massacre of Vilnius Jews and the Vilnius Ghetto (1941-1944). Genocidas ir Rezistencija, 2 (14), 7-43 [in English].
Bubnys, А. (2004). The Kaunas Ghetto (1941-1944). Genocidas ir Rezistencija, 2 (16), 8-40 [in English].
Bubnys, А. (2005). Jewish Police in the Kaunas and Vilnius Ghettos (1941-1944). Genocidas ir Rezistencija, 1 (17), 66-85 [in English].
Bubnys A. (2005). The Holocaust in Lithuania between 1941 and 1944. Vilnus [in English].
Bubnys, А. (2021). Holokaustas Lietuvos provincijoje 1941 metais. Vilnius: Margi Raštai [in Lithuanian].
Chepaitene, R. (2017). «Skandal podnyal novuyu volnu voyn pamyati» (o knige Ruty Vanagayte «Nashi» i reaktsii litovskogo obshchestva) [The Scandal Raised a New Wave of Memory Wars (on Ruta Vanagaite's book «Ours» and the reaction of the Lithuanian society)]. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3THTnET [in Russian].
Cohen, R. & Issroff, S. (2002). The Holocaust in Lithuania 1941-1945. Gefen Publishing House [in English].
Cohen, N. (2003). The Last Days of the Vilna Ghetto – Pages from a Diary. Yad Vashem Studies, 31, 15-59 [in English].
Dieckmann, Ch. (2011). Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941-1944, 2 Bände. Wallstein: Göttingen [in German].
Ezergailis, A. (1996). The Holocaust in Latvia, 1941-1944: A Missing Center. Riga: Historical Institute of Latvia [in English].
Grossman, V. & Ehrenburg, I. (Eds.). (2002). Chernaya kniga. O zlodeyskom povsemestnom ubiystve evreev nemetsko-fashistskimi zakhvatchikami vo vremenno-okkupirovannykh rayonakh Sovetskogo Soyuza i v lageryah unichtozheniya Polshi vo vremya voyny 1941-1945 gg. [Black book. About the villainous widespread murder of Jews by Nazi invaders in the temporarily occupied regions of the Soviet Union and in the extermination camps of Poland during the war of 1941-1945]. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem [in Russian].
Harshav, B. (2002). Introduction: Herman’s Kruk’s Holocaust Writing. In Kruk, H. The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicle form the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. XXI-LII [in English].
Holtzman, H. (2006). «Etot rebenok dolzhen zhit…»: Zapiski Khelene Kholtsman 1941-1944 [“This child must live…”: Notes of Helene Holtzman 1941-1944]. Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [in Russian].
Kassow, S. (2014). Inside the Kovno Ghetto. In The Clandestine History of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 1-62 [in English].
Katz, Y. (2009). Pod grifom «Judenfrei»: Kholokost na territorii okupirovanoy natsistami Estonii (1941-1944) [Under the heading «Judenfrei»: The Holocaust in the territory of Nazi-occupied Estonia (1941-1944)]. Tallinn: Jewish Community of Estonia [in Russian].
Kaufmann, М. (2012). The Destruction of the Jews of Latvia. Riga: Society «Shamir» [in English].
Kruk, Н. (2002). The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939-1944. New Haven: Yale University Press [in English].
Lazerson-Rostovskaya, T. & Polyan, P. (Comps.). (2011). Zapiski iz Kaunasskogo getto (Katastrofa skvoz prizmu detskikh dnevnikov). Dnevniki. Ocherki. Stihi [Notes from the Kaunas ghetto (Catastrophe through the prism of children’s diaries). Diaries. Essays. Poems]. Moskva: Vremya [in Russian].
Levenshtein, M. (2012). U kraya bezdny. Vospominaniya uznika Rizhskogo getto i fashistskikh kontslagerey [At the edge of the abyss. Memoris of a prisoner of the Riga ghetto and fascist concentration camps]. Moskva: Gamma-Press [in Russian].
Levenshtein, M. (2012). Vospominaniya uznika Rizhskogo getto i fashistskih kontslagerey [Memoris of a prisoner of the Riga ghetto and fascist concentration camps]. Retrieved from https://nitsolim.org/R/OrgR/Articles/Memo/Levenshtein.html [in Russian].
Levin, D. (2001). How the Jewish Police in the Kovno Ghetto Saw Itself. Yad Vashem Studies, 29, 183-240 [in English].
Makarova, Ye. & Makarov, S. (2014). 3000 sudeb. Deportatsiya evreev iz Terezinskogo getto v Rigu, 1942 god [3000 Fates. The Deportation of Jews from the Terezin Ghetto to Riga, 1942]. Riga: Society «Shamir» [in Russian].
Medalye, E. (2012). Pravo na zhizn [The right to life]. Moskva-Riga: Polimed [in Russian].
Meller, L. (2022). Dekabr. Dni traura evreyskoi obshchiny Liepai [December. Days of mourning for the Jewish community of Liepaja]. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3TOBJj2 [in Russian].
Michelson, F. (2011). Ya perezhila Rumbulu [I survived Rumbula]. Moskva-Riga: Polimed [in Russian].
Mishell, W. (1988). Kaddish for Kovno: Life and Death in a Lithuanian Ghetto, 1941-1945. Chicago Review Press [in English].
Nikzhentaitis, A. (2017, December 1). Kazhdyi, kto khochet razrushat mif, dolzhen byt khorosho podgotovlen i imet khoroshuyu argumentatsiyu (o kulture pamyati i knige Ruty Vanagayte «Nashi») [Everyone who wants to destroy a myth must be well prepared and have good arguments (on the culture of memory and Ruta Vanagaite’s book «Ours»)]. Historians.in.ua. Retrieved from www.bit.ly/2BH4YeD [in Russian].
Polak-Rozenberg, M. (2012). Tropoyu pamyati: uchebnoye posobiye po prepodavaniyu istorii Katastrofy (Shoa) [The Path of Memory: A Study Guide for Teaching the History of the Holocaust (Shoah)]. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2012 [in Russian].
Porat, D. (1993). The Jewish Councils of the Main Ghettos of Lithuania: a Comparison. Modern Judaism, 2 (13), 149-163 [in English].
Porat, D. (1999). The Vilna ghetto diaries. In Shapiro, R.M. (Ed.). Holocaust Chronicles: Individualizing the Holocaust through Diaries and Other Contemporaneous Personal Accounts. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav Pub, pp. 157-169 [in English].
Radchenko, Yu. (2018). Nekompetentnaya publitsistika i diskussii o prichastnosti k Kholokostu v Litve (rassuzhdeniya o knige Ruty Vanagayte i Efraima Zuroffa «Svoi. Puteshestviye s vragom») [Incompetent journalism and discussions about involvement in the Holocaust in Lithuania (arguments about the book of Ruta Vanagaite and Efraim Zuroff «Own. Journey with the Enemy»)]. Ab Imperio, 4, 281-320. DOI: 10.1353/imp.2018.0100 [in Russian].
Rivosh, E. (2007). Rizhskoe getto (Lichnye vospominaniya) [Riga Ghetto (Personal Memoris)]. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/47jqVwz [in Russian].
Shpungin, S. (2003). Dolgii put k svobode [Long way to freedom]. Retrieved from https://lechaim.ru/ARHIV/138/shulgin.htm [in Russian].
Shur, G. (1993). Znakomstvo polveka spustya. Iz zapisok Grigoriya Shura [Dating half a century later. From the notes of Grigory Shur]. Israel: Moriya Publishing House [in Russian].
Shur, G. (2000). Yevrei v Vilno: khronika, 1941-1944 gg. [Jews in Vilna: chronicle, 1941-1944]. Sankt-Peterburg [in Russian].
Smirin, G., Aleksejeva, O. & Rochko, J. (2011). Jews of Latvia in the World War II. Riga: Society «Shamir» [in English].
Tory, A. (1991). Surviving the Holocaust: the Kovno Ghetto Diary. Harvard University Press [in English].
Vanagayte, R. & Zuroff, E. (2018). Svoi. Puteshestvie s vragom [Their. Journey with the Enemy]. Moskva: Corpus, AST [in Russian].
Vessel, L. (2021). Kholokost v Daugavpilse: 80 let nazad v gorode bylo sozdano getto [Holocaust in Daugavpils: 80 years ago a ghetto was created in the city]. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/3RJuaY2 [in Russian].
Vikhnovich, V. (Comp.). (2006). Dve sudby v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine [Two fates in the Great Patriotic War]. Sankt-Peterburg: Humanitarian Academy [in Russian].
Zilberman, D. (2012). I ty eto videl [And you saw it]. Moskva-Riga: Polimed [in Russian].
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
