The Jews of Lithuania

This book is the result of a personal quest to understand more about Nick's family background in eastern Europe. It leads him to dig deeply into many of the big questions about modern Jewish history in Lithuania.

Why were lots of Jewish people living in Lithuania in the late nineteenth century? Were their lives becoming difficult at that time and, if so, why was this? Why did some Jews emigrate? How did these people choose where to go and how did they make the move? What happened to their family and friends left behind, both during the First World War and in the inter-war period? Why and how were Lithuania's Jews murdered in the Holocaust and how has Lithuanian society tried to come to terms with this in the post-war world?

Much modern Jewish history in Lithuania is terrible. About 96 per cent of the pre-war Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust. But this book also reflects on some positive aspects of the Jewish experience in Lithuania: for many years Lithuania was a good place for Jews to live and that those who emigrated carried with them Jewish traditions and approaches to life and learning acquired while living in Lithuania. These stood them in good stead in the countries they moved to. It meant that many Lithuanian Jewish emigrants settled into their new homes and flourished remarkably quickly.