Crisis, War, and the Holocaust in Lithuania

by Saulius Suziedelis

Overview

Crisis, War, and the Holocaust in Lithuania is the first scholarly English-language study of Lithuania during World War II which utilizes previously inaccessible archives as well as academic works published in that country in the post-Soviet era. In the first chapters, the book examines the multifaceted relations of Lithuania’s national communities before World War II and the international and domestic crises which led to the destruction of the Lithuanian state in 1940. The author describes in detail the process of the mass persecution and murder of the country’s Jews during the Holocaust, the role of Nazi and collaborationist forces, acts of resistance, as well as the society’s responses. The book concludes with an examination of the postwar struggle within Lithuania to confront this legacy of unprecedented violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887194905
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	03/25/2025
Series:	Lithuanian Studies without Borders
Pages:	642
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.38(d)

About the Author

Saulius Sužiedėlis is Professor Emeritus at Millersville University of Pennsylvania specializing in the history of Russia and East Central Europe. The author is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Vytautas Magnus Universityin Kaunas for contributions to historical research on the Holocaust and public awareness of the Shoah in Lithuania.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part One: Before the Shoah

1. Tradition, Accommodation, Conflict: Jews and Lithuanians from the Grand Duchy to the End of the First Republic
2. The Stalinist Cauldron: Lithuanians, Jews, and Soviet Power, June 1940–June 1941

Part Two: Destruction

1. The Specter of Genocide: Invasion, Insurrection, and the Assault on the Jews, June 22–July 31, 1941
2. Concentration and Destruction: The Mass Murder Campaign in Lithuania, August–December 1941
3. Survival, Destruction, Struggle: Ghettos and Jewish Resistance

Part Three: Response, Memory, Legacy

1. Images of Blood: Perpetrators, Observers, Bystanders, Rescuers
2. The Past as Legacy and Conflict: Wartime and Holocaust Narratives in Lithuania

Appendix 1. The Jäger Report 

Appendix 2. Ghettos In Belarus

Sources and Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

The Nazi occupation of Lithuania in the summer of 1941 led to the mass murder of the overwhelming majority of one of the oldest and most creative Jewish communities in Europe. Based on extensive use of the relevant archives, this comprehensive and very well-documented study describes how this was carried out, and also investigates the much-disputed topic of the role of local Lithuanians in this crime. It seeks to move beyond accusations and apologetics to provide a multi-faceted and dispassionate approach to these tragic events and is essential reading for all those interested in the Holocaust and the modern history of Eastern Europe.”

— Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, Chief Historian, Global Education Outreach Project, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw

“I have read Crisis, War, and the Holocaust in Lithuania by Saulius Sužiedėlis with great appreciation for his profound scholarship, the balance of his judgments, and the fineness of his mind. This book will greatly enrich the literature on the Holocaust beyond the borders of the Republic of Lithuania and it will significantly advance the understanding of the complex human dimension of this great tragedy."

— Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, The Yivo Institute for Jewish Research

“With painstaking research, balanced judgment, and accessible prose, Saulius Suziedeilis has provided his readers with a spectacularly successful history of the Holocaust in Lithuania, the first of its kind in the English language. In Suziedeilis's rendering, the Shoah in Lithuania—"the bloodiest page in the history of modern Lithuania"—is liberated from political and historiographical distortions and can be examined dispassionately along with the best of the Western studies of the tragic fate of the Jews.”

— Norman M. Naimark, McDonnell Professor of East European Studies, Stanford University

“In a comprehensive study, Professor Saulius Suziedelis examines the history of the Jews of Lithuania from the fourteenth century to the Holocaust, primarily in the context of their relations with the non-Jewish society. To this end, he relies on documentation found in various archives in Lithuania, the United States, and Israel: newspapers, research literature, official reports, personal diaries, memoirs, recorded testimonies, and more. Based on this, and through his rich experience in historical research, Suziedelis presents a broad, comprehensive, balanced, and unprecedented picture of the subject matter. Particularly noteworthy is the way in which he refutes, based on historical documentation, many stereotypes prevalent in both non-Jewish society and research literature, regarding the world of Lithuanian Jewry. I have no doubt that this book, which is readable to both the scholarly community and the public, constitutes a very important milestone in the historiography of Lithuanian Jewry.”

— Mordechai Zalkin, Ben-Gurion University, Tel-Aviv

From the Publisher