Hidden Treasures
פֿאַרבאָרגענע אוצרות
MUSEUMS │ ARCHIVES │ LIBRARIES
Of the estimated 10 million Lithuanian Jewish photographs that were in Lithuania and owned by Jews on June 22, 19411, somewhere in the region of eight million had been either completely destroyed or otherwise displaced to a variety of known and unknown destinations by the time Lithuania was completely liberated from Nazi occupation by the Red Army on January 28, 1945. The primary purpose of Hidden Treasures is to document the two million or so photographs that survived the war, and that today can be found in the predominantly publicly funded museums, archives and libraries listed below.2 The secondary purpose is to discover any Jewish photographic negatives or prints from before the war that for whatever reason are yet to be (re)discovered.
1 Operation Barbarossa. Not including the photographs that left Lithuania for whatever reason before that time, or Lithuanian Jewish photographs that were privately owned by non-Jews both in Lithuania and abroad. See also The Useless Archive (↓) for more.
2 The list is obviously incomplete, and also includes one or two private institutions. All the big players are here. Others get added from time to time.
AKMENĖ
AKMENĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Akmenės Krašto Muziejus
Established in 2007.
ALYTUS
ALYTUS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Alytaus Kraštotyros Muziejus
Founded during the interwar period as two different organisations that merged in 1935, today the Alytus Regional Museum holds just over 73,000 individual artefacts, including over 13,000 photographic prints and negatives, of which a large percentage are believed to date from the interwar period, and have as yet not been properly examined and/or identified. Photographs by Isaakas Abramavičius seem to be particularly well represented.
KAUNAS REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES IN ALYTUS
Kauno Regioninio Valstybės Archyvo Alytaus Filialas
Established in 1944.
ANYKŠČIAI
A. BARANAUSKAS & A. VIENUOLIS-ŽUKAUSKAS MEMORIAL MUSEUM
A. Baranausko ir A. Vienuolio-Žukausko Memorialinis Muziejus
Founded in 1927. Holds a small handful of rare prints by I. Mulca/Mulcas (↑), one of the town’s first photographers. Also features an interesting page on its website (in Lithuanian) dedicated to the subject of Jewish life and culture in Anykščiai before the Second World War.
BABTAI
BABTAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Babtų Kraštotyros Muziejus
Branch of the Kaunas District Museum (↓).
BAD AROLSEN
AROLSEN ARCHIVES
An internationally governed centre specialising in information and original documentation relating to every aspect of Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, the Arolsen Archives holds over 30 million documents, including many photographs hidden among them. Holds information concerning the fate of several pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographers and their families. Some but not all of the documents have yet been scanned and/or put online. An ongoing process.
BALTIMORE
JEWISH MUSEUM OF MARYLAND
Holds several post-war photographic prints by Harry Rivkind, aka the pre-Second World War photographer and Holocaust survivor from Šiauliai, Giršas Rivkindas, who came to Baltimore with his brother-in-law after the war.
BERLIN
JEWS IN EAST PRUSSIA
Juden in Ostpreußen
Founded and headquartered in Berlin in September 2004, the Jews in East Prussia project is run by two active and enthusiastic Germans who are currently living and working in Klaipėda. The main drivers behind the Jewish museum in the former East Prussian capital of Königsberg, the organisation works in a number of different areas, from education to publishing. Jews in East Prussia has a large photography archive, which includes many Lithuania pictures that really need sorting out and putting online...
JEWISH MUSEUM BERLIN
Jüdische Museum Berlin
Not much is currently known about the museum’s extensive collection of historical photographs, although a quick online search uncovered some extremely rare photographs taken by the German Jewish artist Jakob Steinhardt when he was stationed in Lithuania during the First World War.
BIRŠTONAS
BIRŠTONAS MUSEUM
Birštono Muziejus
Preserves what it calls the ‘cultural values of the Birštonas region’, which bizarrely doesn’t include any Jewish cultural values, despite several centuries of Jewish life and activity in the city and region, which was completely wiped out with the help of the local population in 1941. Annushka Varšavskienė (see Kaunas in The Invisible Magicians) owned a large children’s sanatorium in the town, and sang in the local Kurhauzas, for example.
BIRŽAI
BIRŽAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Biržų Krašto Muziejus Sėla
Founded in 1928. Extensively looted by the Red Army in 1944. Nothing about the Germans in the same period. Today, the institution holds many original photographic prints by several of the town’s former Jewish photographers.
BROOKLINE
JEWISH WOMEN’S ARCHIVE
No information currently available.
BUTRIMONYS
BUTRIMONYS MUSEUM
Butrimonių Muziejus
Small museum inside the local high school.
CAPE TOWN
SOUTH AFRICAN JEWISH MUSEUM
The museum’s online archives feature several hundred Jewish family photographs from pre-Second World War Lithuania.
DRUSKININKAI
DRUSKININKAI CITY MUSEUM
Druskininkų Miesto Muziejus
Founded in 1996. Due to Druskininkai’s complicated past, many historical photographs from the city are today held among the collections of several institutions in Poland.
DUBLIN
IRISH JEWISH MUSEUM
The Dublin Jewish community is largely descended from Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who arrived between the late 1870s and the early 1900s. The museum has a collection of photographs, and has access to genealogical works with entries charting the names and descendants of the Irish Jewish Community. There is also a body of published work giving some of the history of the Jewish community. The museum is run by a small number of dedicated volunteers and has very few resources.
DURBAN
DURBAN HOLOCAUST & GENCOCIDE CENTRE
No information currently available.
FLOSSENBÜRG
FLOSSENBÜRG CONCENTRATION CAMP MEMORIAL
KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg
Features displays of photographs from Lithuanian Jewish families that were sent to the camp between 1941 and 1944.
GARGŽDAI
GARGŽDAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Founded in 2005.
GLASGOW
SCOTTISH JEWISH ARCHIVES CENTRE
Housed inside Scotland’s first purpose-built synagogue that opened in 1881, the SJAC preserves a large and constantly growing collection of artefacts (including a wealth of historical photographs) relating to Jewish life and culture in the country and beyond from the 18th century onwards. There’s no searchable database, but the staff are very friendly and helpful. The building is located in the Garnethill area in Glasgow, where no less than three Lithuanian Jewish photographers moved with their families at the end of the 19th century (see Klaipėda in The Invisible Magicians). Also home to the excellent Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre. Charges for the SJAC’s services often apply.
HUDDERSFIELD
HOLOCAUST CENTRE NORTH
No information currently available.
IGNALINA
IGNALINA REGIONAL MUSEUM
Ignalinos Krašto Muziejus
No information currently available.
JERUSALEM
CENTER FOR JEWISH ART
Amazing online resource.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL
Has its own dedicated photo archive, although many photographs are also held in other departments and collections, including the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People.
YAD VASHEM
Massive collection of historical Jewish photographs.
JOHANNESBURG
JOHANNESBURG HOLOCAUST & GENOCIDE CENTRE
No information currently available.
JONAVA
JONAVA REGIONAL MUSEUM
Jonavos Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1989, the museum has carried out a relatively large amount of research into the lives and diverse culture of the town’s former Jewish population.
JONIŠKIS
JONIŠKIS MUSEUM OF HISTORY & CULTURE
Joniškio Istorijos ir Kultūros Muziejus
Founded in 1989. Also responsible for the so-called Joniškis White & Red Synagogue Complex in town.
JURBARKAS
JURBARKAS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Jurbarko Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1991.
KAIŠIADORYS
KAIŠIADORYS MUSEUM
Kaišiadorių Muziejus
Founded in 1998. A museum without a public space. In 2016, its then director published a nice but not particularly useful photo book about pre-Second World War Žiežmariai. The museum is also known to research Jewish life and culture in pre-Second World War Rumšiškės/Rumshishok. See also Rumšiškės (↓).
KALVARIJA
KALVARIJA REGIONAL MUSEUM
Kalvarijos Krašto Muziejus
Combined museum and tourist information centre. Doesn’t have any original photographs, although it does feature a permanent exhibition dedicated to local Jewish history, which includes several copies of original photographs from other sources.
KAUNAS
KAUNAS CITY MUSEUM
Kauno Miesto Muziejus
Several different branches. Known to hold a lot of Jewish photographs dating from before the Second World War. Its first director was Eduardas Volteris (1856-1941), a Latvian ethnographer with German roots.
KAUNAS NINTH FORT MUSEUM
Kauno IX Forto Muziejus
Many photographs are known to have been found in the pockets of the thousands of Jewish victims who were murdered at the site. The Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History now has them.
The Kassels
On July 3, 1921, a group of approximately 100 men, women and children gathered to have their photograph taken together on the steps of the 19th-century Kursaal building in the spa town of Bad Brückenau in northwestern Bavaria. Who they are is a mystery. Just as puzzling is the connection between the photograph and the Kassels, a Lithuanian Jewish family from Kaunas who were murdered during the National Socialists' occupation of the city between 1941 and 1944, and in whose former attic the photograph was discovered in 2016. The Bad Brückenau portrait is one of 43 intimate family photographs from Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Mozambique, Switzerland, South Africa and the United States that the Camera Obscura project is trying to ‘reunite’ with surviving members of the Kassel family who must be out there somewhere, Complete with some hopefully helpful captions/descriptions, all 43 photographs can be seen online here.
KAUNAS REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES
Kauno Regioninis Valstybės Archyvas
Holds an extraordinary collection of thousands of Lithuanian Jewish photographs from before the Second World War, nearly all of them attached to documents, not all of them catalogued, researched and/or available online. Plenty almost certainly never seen the light of day since they got shoved inside a folder some time before the Second World War. A veritable undiscovered treasure trove.
KIPRAS & MIKAS PETRAUSKAS HOUSE MUSEUM
M. ir K. Petrauskų Namai
Along with his wife, Elena Žalinkevičaitė-Petrauskienė (1900-1986), who was almost certainly the main protagonist of the story, in 1999 the Lithuanian opera singer Kipras Petrauskas (1885-1968) was posthumously recognised as Righteous Among the Nations for rescuing Dana Pomeranz, the six-month-old daughter of the well-known interwar Jewish violinist, Daniel Pomeranz, who was hidden in Berlin of all places during the war, and who was eventually reunited with her parents when the war ended. The museum, which is inside the large house that Kipras and his composer brother, Mikas (1873-1937) built and lived in together, features an extensive family archive, including several original family photo albums that haven’t been properly investigated. Branch of the Kaunas City Museum.
LITHUANIAN EDUCATION MUSEUM
Lietuvos Švietimo Muziejus
Known to have been working as far back as 1931. Founded by Vincas Ruzgas (1890-1972). Holds an original photo album from a Jewish Children’s Home that was located inside the former Bikur Cholim Jewish hospital in Kaunas. The museum also possesses an original photographic print of students and teachers from the interwar Jewish high school in Kaunas, where all of the lessons were taught in the Lithuanian language, although the date written on the back does put its authenticity in some doubt.
MAIRONIS MUSEUM OF LITHUANIAN LITERATURE
Maironio Lietuvių Literatūros Muziejus
Founded in 1936. Dedicated to the memory of the eponymous Catholic priest and poet, and not the most obvious place to find Lithuanian Jewish photographs. It does however hold them in droves, including the only currently known surviving photographic print from the Pakruojis photography studio of A. Skoka (see The Invisible Magicians).
M. K. ČIURLIONIS NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART
Nacionalinis M. K. Čiurlionio Dailės Muziejus
Founded on December 14, 1921 after Kaunas became Lithuania’s temporary capital. The nation’s leading cultural institution during the interwar period, and the contemporary holder of many historical secrets.
The Jewish Historical & Ethnographic Society in Kaunas
The Jewish Historical & Ethnographic Society in Kaunas (JHESK) was born out of a roughly vertical line that chipped a substantial section of eastern Lithuania (including Vilnius, where the original Ansky Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society—on which the JHESK was modelled—was located) off from the rest of the country, and gave it to Poland for the majority of the interwar period. Established in Kaunas in 1922, by 1935 the JHESK had more than 3,000 objects, including 2,000 books, miscellaneous sacred items and a still unknown number of photographs, and was an important and well respected, yet almost completely un-investigated in post-independence Lithuania, organisation. Suffering two major blows in 1940 and again in 1941 that saw the JHESK banned under the new Soviet regime and its artefacts spread first via new Soviet institutions and, the following year, some, including an unknown number of photographs, taken to the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s Institute for Research on the Jewish Question in Frankfurt before making their way to the (at the time new) New York headquarters of YIVO after Germany was defeated at end of the war. On September 6, 1989, the Government of Soviet Lithuania passed Resolution No.177p, permitting the re-opening of the state-owned Jewish Museum after almost 50 years of non-existence. Governmental Resolution No. 56p, dated February 13, 1991, authorized the ‘return’ of ‘most’ of the stored (confiscated/stolen) artefacts from the post-war (state owned) Gaon Museum to the re-established (ditto) Jewish State Museum of Lithuania, today known as the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History. That same year, the M. K. Čiurlionis Art Gallery in Kaunas ‘donated’ the surviving objects it had in storage (that it had confiscated from The Jewish Historical & Ethnographic Society in Kaunas in 1940 and possibly others) to the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History. What chance there ever was of rebuilding some semblance of Lithuanian Jewish life after Lithuania re-established its independence was scuttled by the sudden opportunity to leave, which people did in their thousands. Most Jews in Lithuania today are descended from other Soviet republics. The Jewish Historical & Ethnographic Society in Kaunas is yet to stir any interest among modern scholars, despite it being something of an open goal.
SUGIHARA HOUSE
Sugiharos Namai
No information currently available.
VYTAUTAS THE GREAT WAR MUSEUM
Vytauto Didžiojo Karo Muziejus
Founded in 1921.
KAZLŲ RŪDA
KAZLŲ RŪDA REGIONAL MUSEUM
Kazlų Rūdos Krašto Muziejus
Although it’s known that the town’s interwar photography studio was run by a Lithuanian Jew, no further information on the subject has yet been uncovered.
KĖDAINIAI
KĖDAINIAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Kėdainių Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1922, the Kėdainiai Regional Museum also operates the so-called Multicultural Centre, which is located inside one of the city’s three surviving former synagogues. The museum’s Lithuanian director has tirelessly and single-handedly worked to preserve Kėdainiai’s rich Jewish history and culture for the last three decades. The museum’s collection features a few original Lithuanian Jewish photographs and other artefacts, including an authentic tzedakah box that was found at the town's mass murder site a few kilometres north of town.
KELMĖ
KELMĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Kelmės Krašto Muziejus
Housed inside a former manor house that was emptied of its privately-owned treasures during the Soviet nationalisation programme in 1940/1941.
Kibbutz archives
Coming soon.
KLAIPĖDA
IEVA SIMONAITYTĖ PUBLIC LIBRARY
Klaipėdos Apskrities Ievos Simonaitytės Viešoji Biblioteka
Home to the occasionally fascinating AdM Archive.
LITHUANIA MINOR HISTORY MUSEUM
Mažosios Lietuvos Istorijos Muziejus
Coming soon.
KLAIPĖDA REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES
Klaipėdos Regioninis Valstybės Archyvas
Holds two albums of pre-Second World War postcards, including a few featuring historical scenes from the city’s main market in the former Jewish part of the city, where the Virbalis-born photographer Jechiel Moses Sternstein and the chronicler of the last few years of Jewish life Leon Balk once lived.
KOBLENZ
BUNDESARCHIV
Holds approximately 12 million photographs.
KRETINGA
KRETINGA MUSEUM
Kretingos Muziejus
No information currently available.
KUPIŠKIS
KUPIŠKIS ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM
Kupiškio Etnografijos Muziejus
Founded in 1943.
LAZDIJAI
LAZDIJAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Lazdijų Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1995. Known to hold at least one original photographic print by the former local Jewish photographer Ch. Markas.
LOHAMEI HAGETA’OT
GHETTO FIGHTERS’ HOUSE
Holds an extensive collection of photographs produced by Lithuanian Jews (and others) before the Second World War.
LIMIS
An extraordinary and still growing collection of—not only—Lithuanian Jewish photographs is here. The collection is mostly made up of scanned photographs (prints and negatives) from a range of museums and other institutions in Lithuania. The interface is appalling to say the least, meaning it can take a long time to find what you’re looking for. It also includes non-photographic artefacts, just to make it even more messy.
LONDON
WIENER HOLOCAUST LIBRARY
Known to hold one original pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photograph.
WORLD ORT
The website holds a small collection of historical photographs from Lithuania before the Second World War.
MANCHESTER
MANCHESTER JEWISH MUSEUM
No information currently available.
MARIJAMPOLĖ
MARIJAMPOLĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Marijampolės Krašto ir Prezidento Kazio Griniaus Muziejus
Holds a small collection of original (and in some cases almost certainly unique) photographic prints.
MAŽEIKIAI
MAŽEIKIAI MUSEUM
Mažeikių Muziejus
Founded in 1928.
MELBOURNE
JEWISH MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA
Founded in 1977.
MELBOURNE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
Has a small number of photographs online.
MERKINĖ
MERKINĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Merkines Krašto Muziejus
Known to have been fairly recently active in local Jewish memory projects. No indication of what photographs it holds among its collection.
MOLĖTAI
MOLĖTAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Molėtų Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1991. Among its 36,000 or so exhibits are an unknown number of unidentified photographic negatives from the interwar period.
MONTREAL
JEWISH PUBLIC LIBRARY
Eva Raby, one of the library’s former directors, is a niece of Annushka Varšavskienė (see Yiddishlands, below), the original inspiration behind the Camera Obscura project. Excellent resources, including archive material (with photographs) donated by Jewish families who emigrated to Canada from Lithuania.
Yiddishlands
Annushka Varšavskienė (see the Kaunas section of The Invisible Magicians for some important background information/context) had over 10 brothers and sisters. One brother and one sister survived the Holocaust, both because they were on the other side of the Atlantic when the Second World War engulfed Europe. The brother, Alexander Matz, survived because he was living in the United States, and the sister, Masha Roskies, moved from Cernowitz/Cernăuți/Chernivtsi where she was living, to Montreal with her husband and children immediately ahead of the Red Army's invasion and occupation. Masha’s youngest child, Canadian born David, wrote Yiddishlands, which is now in its second—updated—edition. Click on the link and read the blurb if you want to know more. Annushka Varšavskienė makes several appearances in the book, and you should probably read it.
Richard Schofield
Founding Editor, Camera Obscura
MUNICH
MUNICH CITY ARCHIVES
Stadtarchiv München
Miscellaneous connections with Kaunas. Has relevant photographs.
NEW YORK
JDC ARCHIVES
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC, or ‘The Joint’) was founded in 1914. Its archive hold a vast amount of material from over 90 countries around the world, including more than 70,000 digitised photographs. Their images from Lithuania include pictures tasken during their various humanitarian/reconstruction projects in Kudirkos Naumiestis, Merkinė, Panevėžys, Vilkaviškis and elsewhere from the end of the First World War onwards.
YIVO
Founded in Vilna/Wilno/Vilnius in 1925. In New York since the Second World War. The largest and most comprehensive collection of materials on Eastern European Jewish life and culture in the world. Over 20 million objects, including approximately a quarter of a million photographs spread throughout multiple collections.
NIDA
NERINGA MUSEUM
Neringos Muziejus
Four branches.
PALANGA
PALANGA AMBER MUSEUM
Palangos Gintaro Muziejus
The 1931 Visa Lietuva (All Lithuania) business directory lists a total of eight amber-related businesses in Palanga, all of them owned by Jews, namely Žamulis Alšvangeris, Leiba Fridmanas, Aronas Furmanas E. & S. Gutmanas, E. & L. Gutmanas, Levijas & Bass, Levinas Rūbelis and Senderas Judelmanas. Rather than reflecting this fact, the hundreds of displays inside today’s Palanga Amber Museum, including the photographs on the walls, do a remarkably good job of creating the impression that not one single Jew ever lived in Palanga at all, and that they never had anything to do with the amber business. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Palanga Amber Museum is a branch of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (↓).
PANEVĖŽYS
PANEVĖŽYS COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Panevėžio Apskrities Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės Viešoji Biblioteka
Holds the Irena Moigytė Collection/Fund (Irenos Moigytės Fondas). Ms. Moigytė was a non-Jewish teacher who died in 2001, and who donated her family archive to the library, including a large collection of original photographic prints, many of them from the studio of Leiba Slonimskis.
PANEVĖŽYS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Panevėžio Kraštotyros Muziejus
Founded in 1908. Opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1925. Today the museum holds approximately 30,000 photographs in all formats from a wide range of photographers, the oldest dating back to 1863. Believed to hold a considerable number of glass plate negatives of currently unknown origin/provenance.
ŠIAULIAI REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES IN PANEVĖŽYS
Šiaulių Regioninio Valstybės Archyvo Panevėžio Filialas
No information currently available.
PASVALYS
PASVALYS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Pasvalio Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1991. Ran a project several years ago encouraging the local population to bring old photographs to the museum. Results?
PLUNGĖ
SAMOGITIAN ART MUSEUM
Žemaičių Dailės Muziejus
Founded in 1994. Holds original photographic prints by Mendelis Movša Berkovičius and Leiba Turgel.
PRIENAI
PRIENAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Prienų Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1994.
RASEINIAI
RASEINIAI REGIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Raseinių Krašto Istorijos Muziejus
No information currently available.
RAUDONDVARIS
KAUNAS DISTRICT MUSEUM
Kauno Rajono Muziejus
Established in 2013. Holds what appears to be a substantial number of historical photographs among its collection.
RICHMOND
VIRGINIA HOLOCAST MUSEUM
One of the museum’s original founders was a Holocaust survivor from Kaunas.
RIETAVAS
RIETAVAS OGINSKI CULTURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Rietavo Oginskių Kultūros Istorijos Muziejus
Founded in 1995.
RIGA
JEWS IN LATVIA MUSEUM
Muzejs Ebreji Latvijā
No information currently available.
ROKIŠKIS
ROKIŠKIS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Rokiškio Krašto Muziejus
Established in 1933.
RUMŠIŠKĖS
LITHUANIAN ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM
Lietuvos Etnografijos Muziejus
The institution has a good library and archive containing many historical photographs that have never been fully inventorised. It also features several original Jewish houses, including one with a rather amazing space to celebrate sukkot in up in the attic. See also Kaišiadorys (↑).
ŠIAULIAI
AUŠROS MUSEUM
Aušros Muziejus
Founded in 1923. The museum’s first director, Česlovas Liutikas (1909-1984), was responsible for its multiple ethnographic expeditions during the 1930s, including the miscellaneous visits to synagogues in the region. The main branch of the museum is housed inside a luxurious Art Nouveau villa that was formerly owned by the Lithuanian Jewish industrialist, Chaim Frenkel, whose wife, Dora/Dvora, was murdered in the Šiauliai Ghetto.
ŠIAULIAI COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Šiaulių Apskrities Povilo Višinskio Viešoji Biblioteka
No information currently known.
ŠIAULIAI PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM
Šiaulių Fotografijos Muziejus
Branch of the Aušros Museum (↑).
ŠIAULIAI REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES
Šiaulių Regioninio Valstybės Archyvas
The Šiauliai Regional State Archives preserve a number of interesting and occasionally enlightening documents, including Soviet tax and nationalisation lists from 1940 and 1941 that feature information about Jewish-owned photography studios in the city. It’s assumed that other regional archives around the country hold similar documents.
ŠILALĖ
ŠILALĖ MUSEUM
Šilalės Vlado Statkevičiaus Muziejus
Founded in 1962.
ŠILUTĖ
HUGO SCHEU MUSEUM
Šilutės Hugo Šojaus Muziejus
The museum’s collection apparently includes just under 4,000 unspecified photographs and postcards, plus a further 5,000 negatives from the local (non-Jewish) publisher and postcard producer, Adolf Stahl.
SKAUDVILĖ
SKAUDVILĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Skaudvilės Krašto Muziejus
Branch of the Tauragė Regional Museum (↓).
SKUODAS
SKUODAS MUSEUM
Skuodo Muziejus
Founded in 1991.
SUWAŁKI
STATE ARCHIVES IN SUWAŁKI
Archiwum Państwowe w Suwałkach
No information currently available.
ŠVĖKŠNA
ŠVĖKŠNA EXPOSITION
Švėkšnos Muziejus
Branch of the Hugo Scheu Museum in Šilutė (↑).
ŠVENČIONYS
NALŠIA MUSEUM
Nalšios Muziejus
No information currently available.
SYDNEY
SYDNEY JEWISH MUSEUM
Founded in 1992. Over 15,000 artefacts. Online search function wasn’t working when last checked.
TALLINN
ESTONIAN HISTORY MUSEUM
Eesti Ajaloomuuseum
No information currently available.
TAURAGĖ
Feedback
‘Your project is truly fascinating ... I found valuable and insightful information in Camera Obscura regarding Jewish photographers in Tauragė.’
Vaiva Kiniulienė, Collections Custodian, Tauragė Regional Museum
KLAIPĖDA REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES IN TAURAGĖ
Klaipėdos Regioninio Valstybės Archyvo Tauragės Filialas
Holds some original photographic prints from the studio of A. Katzef/Orel Kacevas.
TAURAGĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Tauragės Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1990.
TEL AVIV
ANU MUSEUM OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Huge archive of photographs, many of which have been digitised and are available online.
TELŠIAI
ALKA MUSEUM OF SAMOGITIAN HISTORY
Žemaičių Muziejus Alka
Founded in 1932 by Pranas Genys and a group of local intellectuals. Holds a collection of 427 original photographic glass plate negatives from the photography studio of the pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographer, Chaim Kaplansky, and his daughter, Feitska Kaplanskaitė-Taicienė, which, so the paperwork clearly states, don’t belong to them. Some other questionable artefacts among their collection too.
KLAIPĖDA REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES IN TELŠIAI
Klaipėdos Regioninio Valstybės Archyvo Telšių Filialas
Holds a collection of historical photographs and postcards, including some wonderful historical studio portraits.
TRAKAI
TRAKAI HISTORY MUSEUM
Trakų Istorijos Muziejus
Founded in 1948. Holds a few Jewish artefacts of questionable origin.
UKMERGĖ
UKMERGĖ REGIONAL MUSEUM
Ukmergės Kraštotyros Muziejus
Founded in 1944. Holds about 40 original pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographic prints among its collection, all of them stored in the general photo archive, i.e. the museum has no specific Jewish collection. Like all museums in Lithuania, the museum keeps a record of provenance/public donations etc., that no doubt hold some tantalising secrets.
The Useless Archive
For the time being at least, Camera Obscura is almost exclusively concerned with Lithuanian Jewish photographs that are in the public domain. To make the project truly inclusive however, it should also include the estimated five million photographs in private (primarily Jewish) homes all over the world. In 2021, before we even started Camera Obscura, we did a test to see how realistic such a project would be, and the results were scary to say the least (very expensive to realise, not to mention so many individuals to deal with). We haven’t abandoned the project entirely, but we have put it on the back burner for the time being. If you think you’ve got what it takes to take The Useless Archive to the next level, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Website
UTENA
UTENA REGIONAL MUSEUM
Utenos Kraštotyros Muziejus
Founded in 1929.
VILNIUS REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES IN UTENA
Vilniaus Regioninio Valstybės Archyvo Utenos Filialas
No information currently available.
VABALNINKAS
VABALNINKAS TOWN MUSEUM
Vabalninko Miesto Muziejus
Branch of the Biržai Regional Museum (↑).
Juozas Daubaras
Farmer, musician, watch repairer, hairdresser—photographer of the last Jews of Vabalninkas. Born the eldest of six children in the tiny hamlet of Remeikiai a few kilometres east of Vabalninkas on December 15, 1895, the non-Jew Juozas Daubaras seems to have fled Lithuania (which was still part of the Russian Empire) with the rest of his family when he was still a boy, escaping first to Germany in 1907, and then about two years later to the United States. Spending just long enough in America to learn English, Juozas then headed back to Europe, where he took various jobs before finally returning to Lithuania after the country became independent at the end of the First World War. Marrying Elžbieta Vasiliauskaitė in 1921 (the couple went on to have three children), his wealthy in-laws paid for the construction of a house in Vabalninkas, where Juozas converted the attic into a photography studio complete with a glass ceiling, and started producing pictures of the local population to send to relatives living in the USA, as well as miscellaneous images for the local market (prices from 4 Lt to 12 Lt). Vabalninkas, unlike what appears to have been every other town and large village in Lithuania at the time, didn’t have a resident Jewish photographer, despite the population of the town being 32% Jewish after the First World War, and so the job of photographing Vabalninkas’ Jews for both official and less formal purposes fell, uniquely, to him. Thus when the local population and the Germans went on the rampage in the summer of 1941, destroying and/or stealing everything Jewish in its path, Juozas photographs were safe, and today his collection is quite simply priceless. Passing away on November 7, 1982, unfortunately his unique collection of glass plate negatives has since been sold to various highest bidders, and so his pictures of Vabalninkas’ last Jewish men, women and children are now in different collections in Lithuania, including supposedly the Aušros Museum (unknown number ↑), the Biržai Regional Museum (unknown number ↑), the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History (134 ↓). the National Museum of Lithuania (135 ↓) and an unknown number of private collectors.
VARNIAI
SAMOGITIAN DIOCESE MUSEUM
Žemaičių Vyskupystės Muziejus
Known to hold an original Jankelis Arnsonas photographic print among its collection, as well as another from the Modern photography studio in Kaunas. Branch of the Alka Museum of Samogitian History in Telšiai (↑).
VEISIEJAI
VEISIEJAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Veisiejų Krašto Muziejus
Branch of the Lazdijai Regional Museum (↑).
VILNIUS
INSTITUTE OF LITHUANIAN LITERATURE & FOLKLORE
Lietuvių Literatūros ir Tautosakos Institutas
Among the many things the institution preserves in its archives is a rich and fascinating collection of studio portraits featuring many Lithuanian literary figures. Not surprisingly, a great deal of these photographs were made by Jewish studio photographers.
JUDAICA RESEARCH CENTRE
Judaikos Tyrimų Centras
Massive and still considerably unresearched/uncatalogued collections of photographs and identity documents feature among the institution’s incredible horde. Part of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (↓).
LITHUANIAN ARCHIVES OF LITERATURE & ART
Lietuvos Literatūros ir Meno Archyvas
Holds some very interesting and important material.
LITHUANIAN CENTRAL STATE ARCHIVES
Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas
Holds close to half a million photographic prints and negatives dating from about 1860 onwards, and presumably knows quite a lot about the provenance of many of them. Everything is digitised, and is slowly being made available to the general public online here. Holds approximately 2,000 photographs in its dedicated Jewish Collections, as well as many other photographs of Lithuanian Jews on various identity (and other) documents, most of which haven’t seen the light of day since they were made.
LITHUANIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE RESEARCH CENTRE
Kultūros Paveldo Centras
Home to a large and mostly overlooked archive of original documents from the Soviet nationalisation programme, as well as others that are suspected of having been produced by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (see Glossary ↑).
LITHUANIAN MUSEUM OF THEATRE, MUSIC & CINEMA
Lietuvos Teatro, Muzikos ir Kino Muziejus
No information currently available.
LITHUANIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART
Lietuvos Nacionalinis Dailės Muziejus
Founded in 1933. Opened to the public as the Vilnius State Art Museum in April 1941. Made up of nine different branches in several different cities.
LITHUANIAN SPECIAL ARCHIVES
Lietuvos Ypatingasis Archyvas
Many of the files the NKVD, the KGB, and the interwar Lithuanian Minstry of the Interior before that, kept on individuals in Lithuania, including those featuring Lithuanian Jewish individuals and families, contain personal photographs dating from before the war. The KGB Document Reading Room is at Gedimino pr. 40/1. The LCP (LKP) Document Reading Room is at Gedimino pr. 12. The VRM Document Reading Room is at O. Milašiaus g. 23.
MARTYNAS MAŽVYDAS NATIONAL LIBRARY OF LITHUANIA
Lietuvos Nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo Biblioteka
Very few specific photographs, but literally millions of documents, magazines, books etc. with relevant and important photographs inside/attached to them. Never really been explored.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LITHUANIA
Lietuvos Nacionalinis Muziejus
Officially founded in 1952, although its history goes back much further. In 1968, it absorbed museum valuables from the Vilnius Regional History Museum, which was founded in 1949 to replace the city’s short-lived Jewish museum. Known to hold quite a few photographic prints and negatives of interest.
VILNA GAON MUSEUM OF JEWISH HISTORY
Vilniaus Gaono Žydų Istorijos Muziejus
An amazing collection of photographs. Founded during the Soviet occupation in 1944
VILNIUS COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
Vilniaus Apskrities Adomo Mickevičiaus Viešoji Biblioteka
No information currently available.
VILNIUS REGIONAL STATE ARCHIVES
Vilniaus Regioninis Valstybės Archyvas
No information currently available.
WROBLEWSKI LIBRARY
Lietuvos Mokslų Akademijos Vrublevskių Biblioteka
A rich source of untapped material.
Conscript pics
Catherine the Great (1720-1796), who was born German, really didn’t like Jews, of which the Russian Empire inherited a huge amount after the so-called Partitions of the late 18th century at the very end of her rule. As well as creating the Pale of Settlement as a means of keeping the Jews under control, the tsarist authorities under Catherine’s original governance also introduced increasingly harsh measures on Jewish young men, the idea being that they’d rather convert to Christianity, secularise or leave Russia altogether than spend a wildly unproportionate amount of time in the military. It worked up to a point, but there were still plenty of youngsters whose belief was such that they’d rather suffer the indignity of a long period of military service than give up their faith. For a number of different reasons, but primarily as another means of keeping them under control, a young Jewish man in the Pale of Settlement who was destined for the military was required to have his photograph taken and verified by a local policeman with a signature and official stamp. Many of these extraordinary documents still survive in the archives in Vilnius and Kaunas (and presumably elsewhere in the former Pale of Settlement), and some are now also available online via the JewishGen website. It’s necessary to register a free account with JewishGen to see them, but after that most services, including this one, are free. The quality of the scans is pretty bad, and the data is limited, but for US$40 you can get a full, high resolution colour copy of the photograph you want, plus any further information that goes with it.
In October 2026, JewishGen completely redesigned/updated their website. Among the bugs so far found seems to be the Conscript pics. If anyone could find them we'd be extremely grateful.
WARSAW
JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE
Żydowski Instytut Historyczny
No information currently available.
POLISH STATE ARCHIVES
Archiwa Państwowe
No information currently available.
WASHINGTON
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
A huge and mostly chaotic archive.
WINDSOR
THE ROYAL COLLECTION
Holds several surprising photographs by pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographers resident to the east in Russia proper among its collection. Jasvoin.
ZARASAI
ZARASAI REGIONAL MUSEUM
Zarasų Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1934.
ŽEIMELIS
PAKRUOJIS REGIONAL MUSEUM
Pakruojo Krašto Muziejus
Founded in 1959. Originally part of the Aušros Museum. Now attached to the local municipality in Pakruojis.
ŽEMAIČIŲ NAUMIESTIS
ŽEMAIČIŲ NAUMIESTIS MUSEUM
Ekspozicija Žemaičių Naumiestyje
Branch of the Hugo Scheu Museum (↑).