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The Jewish Community of Siauliai

by Jeffrey Maynard

The Holocaust

Germans entered Shavel on Thursday June 26th, 1941. There were two ghettos areas, one in the Kaukas suburb, and the second in Traku. Rabbi Aharon Bakst and the Dayan Rabbi Avrohom Nochumovsky were shot on July 11th 1941. On November 4th, 1943 the Germans rounded up all the children. The chief of the Jewish police was Ephraim Gens. His brother Jacob was chief of the Jewish police in Vilna. The story of the Shavli ghetto is told in a diary by Dr. Eliezer Yerushalmi that was published after the war.

Simcha Brudno, who was born on 30 May 1924 in Shavel has deposited a manuscript "Witness to Nazism" in the archives of the United States Holocaust Museum. This contains information about his Holocaust experiences in Lithuania at the time of the German invasion, his time in the ghetto, and the round-up of children from the ghetto on 5 November 1943. ³

Sonja Haid Greene, who was born and brought up in Shavel has deposited a memoir "Between Life and Death" in the archives of the United States Holocaust Museum. This describes her pre-Holocaust youth in Shavel, the Traku ghetto, concentration camps and liberation. ⁴

Notes

[1]. Kagan, p572.

[2]. Kagan, p571.

[3]. "Simcha Brudno: Witness to Nazism" mss. (archives RG-02.101), United States Holocaust Museum.

[4]. Between Life and Death (My Memoirs) mms. (archives RG-02.112), United States Holocaust Museum.