CAMERA OBSCURA
A Pictorial History Exposed
A Pictorial History Exposed
THE ELEPHANT IN THE DARKROOM
SOURCES
Work in progress.
1 A TALE OF TWO CITIES
BEYOND THE PAPER BRIGADE
The reference to air-raid drills in Wilno can be found in Lucy Dawidowicz book
—The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis David E. Fishman, 2017
https://ajlpublishing.org/index.php/jl/article/view/1393/1315
—The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project: A Case Study Stephanie Halpern, 2023 [PDF]
—YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture: Scholarship for the Yiddish Nation (Kindle Edition). Cecile Esther Kuznitz, 2014
—The End of the Glorious Years: YIVO under the Soviet Regime, 1940–1941. Lara Lempertienė, 2023 [PDF]
—Interview with Lara Lempertienė
— LCVA FR1001, ap. 1, b. 40, fol. 37-62a Full inventory of everything belonging to YIVO, taken during the first Soviet occupation/nationalisation programme
—LCVA R633/1/5/16 ERR document relating to YIVO photo archive
—LCVA R633/1/5/21 ERR document relating to YIVO photo archive
—LCVA R633/1/5/26 ERR document relating to YIVO photo archive
THE RAPE OF KAUNAS
—Tentative List of Jewish Cultural Treasures in Axis-Occupied Countries (Lithuania), 1946. Published by the research staff of the Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction in New York [LINK]
PDF The End of the Glorious Years: YIVO under the Soviet Regime, 1940–1941. Lara Lempertienė, 1923 [LINK]
—Interview with Lara Lempertienė
KRVA R965/8 Vytautas the Great Culture Museum (title), January 22-January 29, 1941. ADD DESCRIPTION
LMAB 264-1408,1.1-7 Wroblewski Library, Manuscript Department. Inventory of objects owned by the Jewish History & Ethnography Society in Kaunas that ‘went to’ the Vytautas the Great Culture Museum in Kaunas during the nationalisation of the former in 1940/1941
—Interview with YIVO
—Interview with Gaon Museum
—Max Weinreich, letter to Seymour Pomrenze (first diretor of Offenbach Archival Depot), March 19, 1946, box 1, ‘Restitution of YIVO Property, 1945-1949’, YIVO archives
PDF www.lituanistika.lt/content/28793 Includes information concerning the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s looting of JHESK property
List of objects recorded in KRVA R965-8 pp.1-??
Soviet-produced inventory of JHESK
Ilja Josvain (glass plate negatives/studio camera) & Esther Lurie {letters after the war, film negatives
2 NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Coming soon.
HEART OF GLASS
—LCVA F1075/2/20-P7 DESCRIPTION
—LCVA F1075/2/20-P8 DESCRIPTION
—Chaimas Kaplanskis: Photographer. Vilnius Art Academy. 2007. ISBN 978-9955-624-95-0
—Miscellaneous literature about him
—LCVA F1075/2/20-P9 DESCRIPTION
—LCVA F1075/2/20-P10 DESCRIPTION
—LYA K-1 58 P-14620 1 Inventory of Pranas Genys’ possessions made after his arrest by the KGB on April 27, 1951. An English translation of the inventory is here. Mariana Iljina
Hirša
—TKM GEK-27.251
5 Rachel
AA = Arolsen Archives
`AA Rachel Taitz 01.jpg Surviving page from Rachel’s medical records from the University Polyclinic in Munich, February 7, 1948. Note that her usual place of residence is mistakenly written as Felsch instead of Telšiai [LINK]
AA Rachel Taitz 02.jpg Copy of the above document with one or two minor differences [LINK]
AA Rachel Taitz 03.jpg Another surviving page from Rachel’s medical records from the University Polyclinic in Munich, February 7, 1948. [LINK]
AA Rachel Taitz 04.jpg Copy of the above document with one or two minor differences [LINK]
LCVA F1382/1/322/1 Rachel Taitz’s birth certificate [LINK]
LCVA F1382/1/278 Rachel Taitz’s school report, June 12, 1940 [LINK]
THE CURIOUS CASE OF MAUŠA FLIGELIS
ŠAM F1-AP2-B8-L4,6 List of photographic equipment taken from MF's apartment [LINK]
ŠAM F1-AP2-B8-L31 Description Report of the seizure of MF's photographic equipment (note the original file has the wrong date) [LINK]
ŠAM F1-AP2-B8-L12 List of Mauša Fligelis' photographic equipment held by AM [LINK]
ŠAM F1-AP2-B8-L14 List of Mauša Fligelis' photographic materials and inventory [LINK]
ŠAM F1-AP2-B8-L3 List of Mauša Fligelis' lamps received by AM (undated) [LINK]
ŠAM F2-AP1-B8-L1 Receipt addressed to Aušra Museum, regarding Mauša Fligelis' negatives [LINK]
ŠAM F2-AP1-B2-L23 Statement by Mauša Fligelis to the director of the Aušra Museum regarding the return of photographic equipment [LINK]
ŠAM F2-AP1-B2-L6 St. Vaitkaus' letter to the Aušra Museum on the subject of Mauša Fligelis' photography studio [LINK]
Telephone conversation/interview with David Fligel DATE
—ŠAM Neg. Nr. 9834 Šiauliai Zionist Society members, c.1934
—Two pages from the Aušros Museum’s Negative Registration Book
—Interview with David Fligel
—ŠAM F–IF 3547 Mauša Fligelis with [his] Relatives
—Interview with David Fligel
3 WHISPERING GRASS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF LEICA TRAIN
—Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas. Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum of History, DATE pp.??
—Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941 (pp.29-30). Dr. Arūnas Bubnys www.komisija.lt/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/A.Bubnys_Province_ENG.pdf
—LCVA R1534-?? Two-page list describing items of jewellery, gold and silver household items (cuttlery, candlesticks etc.) and a Leica camera with case that were seized/looted/expropriated from Jewish homes and the victims themselves at approximately the same time they were murdered. September 29, 1941
A MEMENTO FOR HENKE
—Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas. Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum of History, DATE pp.??
—Unknown number of personal photographs that belonged to the murdered photographer
—Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941 (pp.24-26). Dr. Arūnas Bubnys www.komisija.lt/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/A.Bubnys_Province_ENG.pdf
—January 10, 2025 (names)
—May 18, 2025 (names)
—lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leizeris_Bekeris
—LCVA R-1534
—Informal interview and miscellaneous email correspondence with Romy Bekeris
Mariana Iljina
THE PICTURE OF SELMA VOGEL
—Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas. Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum of History, DATE pp.??
—Holocaust in Lithuanian Province in 1941 (pp.7-8). Dr. Arūnas Bubnys www.komisija.lt/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/A.Bubnys_Province_ENG.pdf
—United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accession Number 2013.317.1
—www.jewishgen.org
—www.findagrave.com/memorial/82081276/jacob-fink
4 THE IMPOSSIBLE MUSEUM
—www.jmuseum.lt
—The Book Smugglers. Dr. David Fishman
—Gaon Museum archives
—Visit to the Lithuanian Central State Archives in Vilnius to view the photographs
—Informal interview and miscellaneous email correspondence with ??, ?? at the Lithuanian Central State Archives
2,162 photographs 1948 Romualdas Samavičius, Žydų Kultūros Paveldo Netektys Okupacijų Metais PDF
5 EPILOGUE
FRUMA
—Her book
ZINA
Blumentalienė
Long article in Lithuanian about her husband
Lithuanian Special Archives
LYA K-1 58 P-2277 Eight people caught trying to fly to Bucharest. Interrogation and search documents. Criminal case.
DOV
Coming soon.
MOISHE
Coming soon.
HARRY
Jonas Nekrašius, Senoji Šiaulių Fotografija (1863-1944 m.). PDF
Šiauliai Ghetto Census LCVA R-743 1 1354
JewishGen ghetto census
Harry’s German documents
United States
Obituary
www.findagrave.com/memorial/35859851/harry-rivkind
KKM-N-1638 Studio portrait of a woman from Kelmė, 1944 (Kelmė Regional Museum). Credited to the non-Jewish photographer, A. Brunas. The photography studio address is Dariaus ir Girėno g. 48, the same location as the former photography studio belonging to Liuba and Giršas Rivkind
—Interview with Jonas Nekrašius
—Harry & Liuba’s photography studio takeover
—www.arolsen-archives.org
—Harry Rivkind Baltimore Photographs
—Harry Rivkind Obituary
—Email correspondence with Jewish Museum of Maryland