A History of YIVO’s Prewar Archival Collections from 1925 to 2001

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/707

Keywords:

Archives, Holocaust, Restitution, Yiddish, Nazi, Poland, Soviet Union, YIVO, Lithuania

Abstract

This article discusses YIVO's prewar collections, their looting and dispersion during the Holocaust, and the various subsequent efforts to recover them. The article includes a brief overview of YIVO's founding and prewar activities; a discussion of the Nazi looting of YIVO's materials during the Holocaust and the heroic efforts by Jews to save these materials during and after the war; YIVO's shift of its headquarters to New York City in 1939–1940; the US Government restitution of materials to YIVO in 1947; and efforts to reclaim additional materials from Lithuania from 1989 to 2001. The article closes with a brief note on YIVO's newly completed Vilna Collections Project to digitally reunite YIVO's pre-war materials in New York City with materials housed in three Lithuanian repositories. 

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Published

2022-12-31

How to Cite

Halpern, Stefanie. 2022. “A History of YIVO’s Prewar Archival Collections from 1925 to 2001”. Judaica Librarianship 22 (December):20–40. https://doi.org/10.14263/22/2022/707.

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Essays and Research

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