shtetlinks

ShtetLinks: Kibart (Kybartai), Lithuania

 

View Kibart on a map (Lat 54 deg 39', Long 22 deg 45') via Mapquest

 

Other Names:

 

Background Information

 

List of People or Researchers with an Interest in Kibart

JewishGen Family Finder

Please enter your family names and your name on the JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF) for Neishtot.

A Partial List of Former Kibart Jews Who Lived in Israel and in the Diaspora

(from the Kibart Yizkor Book by Joseph Rosin)

Apriyasky Aryeh (Peru)
Apriyasky (Valdshtein) Rachel (Israel)
Borovik Moshe (Israel)
Bartenshtein Joseph (Israel) *
Borochovitz Mordechai (USA)
Borochovitz (Yaron) Judith (Israel) *
Berniker (Israel)
Blumberg (Segal) Zina (Israel)
Chashman (Taub) Aya (Israel)*
Chashman (Gordon) Tova (Israel) *
Davidson Michael (Buffalo, New York-USA)
Fainzilber Yitzhak (Israel)
Froman (Kagan) Yafa (Israel)
Frenkel Shmuel (Israel)
Goldberg Rita (Israel)
Ginsburg (Fin) Frida (Israel)
Kovensky Zisl (Israel) *
Kovensky Jakov (Israel) *
Kovensky (Priman) Shoshana (Israel)
Kliatchko Sarah (Israel) *
Kliatchko Perl (Israel)
Kliatchko Miriam (Israel)
Kliatchko Peretz (Israel) *
Kliatchko Eli (Germany)
Kaplan Yehuda (Israel )*
Mogiluker (Gotlib) Shoshana (Israel)
Manheim (Langevitz) Sarah (Israel)
Ozerov (Landsberg) Rachel (Israel)
Ozerov Esther (Israel) *
Rosin Joseph (Haifa, Israel)
Seinensky (Sheines) Berta (Israel)
Shadchanovitz David (Israel)
Sheinzon Dov (USA)
Shtern (Kagan) Malka (Israel)
Shtern (Rochman) Frida (Israel)
Shtern Dov (Israel)
Taburisky (Borochovitz) (USA)
Taburisky Ela (Israel) *
Tilzer Frida (USA)
Varshavsky (Bar-Shavit) Aryeh (Israel)
Vidomliansky (Shacham) Shalom (Israel)
Vizhansky Max (Israel)
Yasovsky Chanan (Israel) *
Yasovsky Pesia (Israel)
Yasven (Veintraub) Roza (Israel)
Yofe Gershon (Israel) *
Yofe Yerachmiel (Israel)
 
* - passed away
 
Email from: Samuel Rachlin

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000

Subject: Kibart Page
 
 
Dear Mr.Rosin,
 
I have read the material on your Kibart site with great interest and noticed that my father's name appears in the pages as one of the Kibart natives. I would like to be on your mailing list and receive whatever relevant material you and other Kibart'niks may be in the possesion of.
 
My father, Israel Rachlin, the son of Shneur and Sara Rachlin, was born in Kibart in 1906. As your paper correctly states, he was born into a family of horse exporters, a business that he took over upon his graduation from the University of Leipzig in 1932. He managed the business until the Soviet occupation in 1940. The whole family, my father, my Danish-born mother, grandmother and my two older siblings, were arrested on June 14, 1941 and deported a few days later to Siberia together with the thousands of others thereby escaping the fate of most of the other Kibart Jews who perished in the Holocaust including my father's relatives. My parents passed away recently, my father in October 1998, and my mother just about three months later, in February 1999. They left behind 4 volumes of memoires, the last appeared on the day my father died, all published in Danish by two leading Danish Publishers. The first volume, 16 Years in Siberia, has also been published in English by the University of Alabama Press. All four volumes have descriptions of life in Kibart, a place my father loved and told about all his life. After the fall of the Soviet Union, my father actually established contact with the city authorities in Kibart and corresponded with the the mayor. He also received confirmation that the family house was still standing, and he also received a picture of the house.(I have the exact address in some of the papers my father left behind.) I plan to go to Lithuania this spring or summer to visit the place where my father was born. My grandfather, Shneur Rachlin and his brother Eliya, are buried in the Jewish cemetery, but I suspect that nothing is left of that cemetery. In any case, I am planning to go back and see what is left.
 
Last summer, I revisited my own birthplace in Yakutia [Siberia] and retraced part of the route of my parents' deportation. I went down the Lena river from Yakutsk to Bykov Mys at the Arctic Ocean, where my parents and siblings spent one year. I produced a 90 minutes long TV documentary about this trip and the family history, and it just aired in Denmark 10 days ago. I hope it will eventually be aired in Israel, too.
 
Just briefly about myself: I am a journalist, working as a foreign correspondent for Danish TV in Moscow and living in Washington DC with my family. This was all for now. I hope you will put me on your list and keep me posted about Kibart matters - as you understand I am an interested Kibartnik descendant. Sincerely yours,
 
Samuel Rachlin
PS. The English version of my parents' memoirs is "Sixteen Years in Siberia" Memoirs of Rachel and Israel Rachlin, published by the University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London. 1988. Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data 1. Rachlin, Rachel 1908- 2. Rachlin, Israel 1906 - 3.Jews-Soviet Union-Siberia-Biography DS135.R95A15813 1988 947'.004924022 86-25096 ISBN 0-8173-0357X.
 
The name of my recent documentary on Danish TV was "The Journey Back to Siberia". It aired in Denmark on January 18th and 19th, 2000.
 
Kibart Cemetery Restoration Project
 
Samuel Rachlin and Joseph Rosin have started to plan a restoration project of the Kibart Jewish Cemetery. Sam had visited the cemetery and took photos in the summer of 2001, and was motivated to initiate the project. As of November 2001, the Sam and Joseph are proceeding with the project, having identified local Kibart residents who will help with the project and have estimated the cost. If you are interested in donating to the project, please contact Sam Rachlin at SamRach@aol.com. Further information will be posted here when available.

For More Photos from the Kibart Cemetery taken by Nancy Lefkowitz in May 2001

 

 

Below are photos of newly placed headstones on Rachlin Family graves in the Kybart cemetery

 

 

 

 

The inscription on the right stone:

 
Our dear and faithful father and brother who passed away being young
Eliyahu ben Yehudah Rakhlin
Died 13-th of Tishrei 5633 (1932)

 

 

The inscription on the left stone:

 
My dear husband and father
Shne'ur-Zalman ben Yehudah Rakhlin
Died in Shushan-Purim 5634 (1934)

 

 

 

 

 

Standing beside the stone: Samuel Rachlin and Harrietta Rachlin-Eolsner

 

 

 

Memorial Tablet of Kibart and Virbalis Communities at the Holocaust Cellar on Mount Zion in Jerusalem

 
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Updated by June 15, 2009 by Joel Alpert
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