M. Balberyszski, Holocaust survivor “Likwidacja Getta Wilenskiego” (Liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto) 1st ed., 1946, Polish
Mendel Balberyszski, Holocaust survivor “Likwidacja Getta Wilenskiego”
(Liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto) 1st ed., 1946, Polish
Warsaw/Lodz/Krakow, Centralna Zydowska Komisja Historyczna, 40pp., soft cover, 21 x 15 cm.
Condition: foxing stains to most of pages, staples rusted, foxing stains and pencil scribbles to covers, endpapers and couple of pages.
The publication is Mendel Balberyszski's personal eyewitness account of life in the Vilna Ghetto and its subsequent destruction during the German occupation of Lithuania. During the Holocaust, Balberyszski, who was a prominent member of Vilna's Jewish community, became a member of the Advisory Council administering the "small ghetto", who continued to oppose the Judenrat's policy of collaborating with the Nazis. He managed to survive the liquidation of the Ghetto, and ultimately the Holocaust. Pages 38-40 contain a list of 35 titles published 1945-1946 by the Historical comission.
Mendel Balberyszski (1894-1966) was a Lithuanian- Polish Jewish politician, writer and Holocaust survivor. Before WWII he was member of the editorial staff of the Vilnius Yiddish newspaper "Der Tog". He later enter politics, becoming a prominent member of the Jewish political party "Folkspartei", and later the Polish Democratic Party. He survived the holocaust and emigrated to Melbourne, Australia where he became a prominent member of the Jewish community. His experiences were ultimately published as "Stronger than Iron: The Destruction of Vilna Jewry 1941-1945" in 2010.