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59-471: According to the Lithuanian Chronicles , the settlement was named after Eikšys, possibly one of the sons of Karijotas . According to Yaffa Eliach , "Local Jewish folklore had its own account of how the name of the town came into being: Once upon a time in the early days of the shtetl, a man came home and was greeted by his wife with a special treat of freshly cooked varenie (preserves), made from

118-524: A course on Hasidism and the Holocaust, and she found that many of her students were the children of Holocaust survivors, liberators, or Holocaust survivors themselves. She began requiring students to record audio interviews with Holocaust survivors in their community as a course assignment. In 1974, Eliach established the Center for Holocaust Studies to serve as a repository for these interviews. Initially housed at

177-645: A fragment (about one-fifth of the original) of the third redaction at the National Archives in Kraków  [ pl ] and published it in 2018. The patriotic themes were even more prevalent than in the second redaction. It continued to elaborate on the Palemon legend: to improve chronology Palemon was moved to the 5th century Rome, devastated by Attila the Hun , and Mindaugas and other historical dukes were incorporated into

236-536: A majority: they constitute some 80% of the population within the Šalčininkai District Municipality . Eišiškės also has a small community of Romani people , numbering some 34 families. It dates from at least 1780 when King Stanisław August Poniatowski appointed a certain Znamirowski as community's elder. In 2001, in Eišiškės 42 students of Roma descent received financial assistance from an education fund. The first church

295-470: A member of President Jimmy Carter 's Commission on the Holocaust in 1978-79 and accompanied his fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe in 1979. She was a frequent lecturer at numerous conferences and educational venues and has appeared on television several times in documentaries and interviews. She wrote several books and contributed to Encyclopaedia Judaica , The Women's Studies Encyclopedia , and The Encyclopedia of Hasidism . Eliach devoted herself to

354-680: A pogrom by Poles and the Polish Home Army . Eliach claimed that prior to the attack, the Polish commander outside the houses concluded his order with what she claims was a popular Home Army slogan "Poland without Jews". According to historian John Radzilowski, Eliach was never able to produce any documents supporting her claim such slogans were used. Israeli historian Israel Gutman criticized Eliach stating "I don't have sympathy for this author; she's not an authority on Holocaust, and her books haven't been translated to Hebrew. One shouldn't close eyes to

413-576: A praise to Vytautas, written by Gerasim, a story about Podolia , written in 1431–1435 to support the Lithuanian claims against Poland in the Lithuanian Civil War , a description of power struggles between Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis , a short summary of Moscow's chronicles (854–1428), and latest events in Smolensk (1431–1445). The compilation also did not survive in its original state. It

472-464: A son, Yotav Eliach, the principal emeritus of Rambam Mesivta High School . Yaffa Eliach had 14 grandchildren, including Itamar Rosensweig , and nine great-grandchildren, at the time of her death in New York on November 8, 2016. Eliach is the author of Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust ( Oxford University Press ). Derived from interviews and oral histories, these eighty-nine original Hasidic tales about

531-456: Is a Hebrew translation of the Yiddish Shayna; son and sun are homophones of "ben" and "shemesh"). In Israel, she attended Kfar Batya . Another student at the school, Izhak Weinberg , who was three years younger than Yaffa, remembered her as a most positive, talented and gifted student. The principal of her school was David Eliach, whom she married in 1953. She became a history teacher in

590-461: Is known from several manuscripts: The second, more extensive, redaction (also known as Chronicle of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Samogitia ) was compiled in the second half of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century (the final version probably came into existence around the 1520s at the court of Albertas Goštautas ). The redaction traced back the foundations of the Lithuanian state to

649-559: Is now a library, while another was demolished. No Jews are known to live in the town today. The history of Jewish Eyshishok has been documented in the book There Once Was A World by Yaffa Eliach , professor at Brooklyn College , and popularized in the Sibert Honor -winning children's book The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana Steifel and Susan Gal (Scholastic Press, 2022). Today Poles form

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708-485: Is shocking and out of place for a professional historian to blame everyone for a crime committed by one individual" and that the Eliach's claim was "senseless fanaticism". A Polish American Public Relations Committee member said that "Holocaust survivors tend to be revisionist, wanting to satisfy their egos, defame others and financially profit". Eliach responded by saying that "several fringe Polish-American groups, following in

767-488: The Bychowiec Chronicle , elaborated even further on the legend, but also provided some useful information about the second half of the 15th century. The three redactions, the first known historical accounts produced within the Grand Duchy, gave rise to the historiography of Lithuania . All medieval historians used these accounts, that survived in over 30 known manuscripts, as basis for their publications and some of

826-537: The Archaeographic Commission became interested in collecting and publishing all known manuscripts of the Lithuanian Chronicles . Twelve manuscripts were published in 1907 as volume 17 of the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles as West Russian Chronicles ( Russian : Западнорусские летописи ), which became the standard reference. The collection, newly compiled and edited by Mikałaj Ułaščyk ,

885-536: The Conference of Lutsk in 1429, etc. Among them were some factual stories, including Algirdas ' three sieges of Moscow . This format differed significantly from other Slavic chronicles that tended to list inter-related events year-by-year. The second redaction also considerably trimmed and fragmented parts about Ruthenia and the Principality of Moscow ; thus the text became primarily about Lithuania. The chronicle

944-744: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania . It had a court and here nobles gathered for a sejmik . Eišiškės was sacked and burned in 1655 during the Muscovite invasion and in 1706 during the Great Northern War . The town lost the majority of inhabitants and lost its former status as a trade center. At the end of the 17th century, in hopes to revive the economy, Eišiškės were granted Magdeburg rights and became known for its horse and cattle markets. The former market square and surrounding streets are protected as urban heritage since 1969. The town's importance decreased after

1003-676: The Second Polish Republic during the interwar years. During World War II, the town witnessed some fighting between the Polish Armia Krajowa , Nazi Wehrmacht , and Soviet Red Army . According to Jewish sources, there were tombstones dating from as early as 1097 at the former Jewish cemetery, making Eishishok one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Eastern Europe. In the 18th century, the Jewish population accounted for about half of

1062-646: The Yeshiva of Flatbush , the Center grew to include professional staff, over 2,700 interviews, and thousands of physical objects donated by Holocaust survivors. Her organization became the model for many other similar efforts, and changed the dialog about Holocaust victims to include more focus on their pre-Holocaust lives. In 1990, the Center merged with the Museum of Jewish Heritage , where its oral history collection, objects, and institutional archives are now housed. Eliach served as

1121-659: The partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , especially after it was sacked during the French invasion of Russia . However, the town grew rapidly following the Uprising of 1863 and the abolition of serfdom . After a few devastating fires, residents started constructing brick buildings. The town continued to be known for its markets and for its carriages. Eišiškės was part of the Nowogródek Voivodeship of

1180-574: The "Tower of Faces" made up by 1,500 photographs for permanent display at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Yaffa Eliach was born Sonia Sonenzon (Yiddish name Shayna ) to a Jewish family in Ejszyszki ( Yiddish : איישישאָק /Eishyshok) near Vilna . It is a small town now Eišiškės , Lithuania , but before the war it was part of Second Polish Republic , and had a Jewish majority until

1239-583: The 1420s, glorified Vytautas the Great and supported his side in power struggles. The second redaction, prepared in the first half of the 16th century, started the myth of Lithuanian Roman origin: it gave a fanciful genealogy of Palemon , a noble from the Roman Empire who founded the Grand Duchy. This noble origin of Lithuanians was important in cultural rivalry with the Kingdom of Poland . The third redaction, known as

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1298-413: The 14th–15th centuries. Historian Ignas Jonynas argued that Anna, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and wife of Vytautas was a sister of Sudimantas, a nobleman from Eišiškės and commander of Vytautas' army. An important route, connecting Vilnius , Hrodna , and Warsaw , ran through the town. Protected by the castle and boasting a church built by Vytautas, the town became one of the important trading centers in

1357-409: The 15th century and Ruthenian Litovskomu rodu pochinok from the 14th century. Later this document was expanded to include events up to 1396. It formed the backbone of the first chronicle. The first redaction survived only from later manuscripts and compilations. The earliest known compilation was prepared in Smolensk around 1446 by bishop Gerasim and his clerk Timofei. The compilation also included

1416-684: The 16th century. This myth served Lithuanian interests in conflicts with Poland and Muscovy. Poland, then in personal union with Lithuania , claimed that it brought civilization to this barbaric pagan land. By creating fanciful genealogies, linking Lithuanians with noble Romans, the Lithuanian nobility could counter these claims and demand political independence. This redaction rarely included dates and contained several independent stories that were cherished by 19th century nationalists: legends how Gediminas founded Vilnius because of his dreams of Iron Wolf , how Kęstutis took pagan priestess Birutė for his wife, how Vytautas lavishly treated his guests at

1475-625: The 1st century, when legendary Palemon escaped from Roman Empire and settled at the mouth of Dubysa . He founded the Palemonids dynasty and became the first ruler of Lithuania. This legendary part was then followed by the revised first redaction, detailing the lineage of the Gediminids . Mindaugas , the first King of Lithuania crowned in 1253, and other earlier historically attested dukes were skipped entirely. The elaborate story that Lithuanians were of noble Roman origins had no historical basis and

1534-562: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Dis ist Witoldes sache wedir Jagalan und Skargalan , a complaint and memorial written by Vytautas in 1390 during the Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392) . It detailed his power struggles against cousins Jogaila and Skirgaila in 1379–1390 and supported his claims to his patrimony in Trakai and title of Grand Duke of Lithuania. Two translations of this document survive: Latin Origo regis Jagyelo et Witholdi ducum Lithuanie from

1593-449: The Holocaust provide unprecedented witness, in a traditional idiom, to the victims' inner experience of "unspeakable" suffering. This volume constitutes the first collection of original Hasidic tales to be published in a century. According to Chaim Potok , Hasidic Tales is "An important work of scholarship and a sudden clear window onto the heretofore sealed world of the Hasidic reaction to

1652-670: The Holocaust. Eliach lived there until she was four years old. Following the Soviet takeover in 1939, her father became involved with the Soviet authorities. When the town was occupied by the Germans in June 1941, most of the Jewish population were murdered by the Germans and Lithuanians, including 200 of Eliach's relatives. Eliach's six immediate family members hid and were sheltered by landowner Kazimierz Korkuc and farmer Antoni Gawryłkiewicz , both Poles. The family members were: In 1944, following

1711-597: The Holocaust. Its true stories and fanciful miracle tales are a profound and often poignant insight into the souls of those who suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis and who managed somehow to use that very suffering as the raw material for their renewed lives." And, as Robert Lifton wrote "Yaffa Eliach provides us with stories that are wonderful and terrible -- true myths. We learn how people, when suffering dying, and surviving can call forth their humanity with starkness and clarity. She employs her scholarly gifts only to connect

1770-568: The Home Army's motivations to commit a pogrom in Eishyshok, which was a Soviet garrison town and points out that freeing 50 captured Polish fighters who were held prisoner in the town might have been the target of the raid. Piotrowski also pointed out a NKVD agent, belonging to a SMERSH unit, was in the house. Lithuanian historian and political scientist Liekis Sarunas has also said that the available historic documents do not support Eliach's version of

1829-622: The Jews back to life. In memory of her hometown, Eliach created the "Tower of Life", a permanent exhibit that contains approximately 1,500 photos of Jews in Eishyshok before the arrival of the Germans for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1953, Eliach married David Eliach, who served for decades as principal of the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School . They had a daughter, Smadar Rosensweig , Professor of Bible at Stern College for Women (NYC), and

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1888-474: The Soviet takeover of the town from Nazi Germany, Eliach's family returned to the town. Soon thereafter, her father again became involved with the Soviet authorities. Her father began to house Soviet soldiers. During a fight between Polish resistance and Soviet forces, two members of Eliach's family and two Soviet soldiers were killed. Eliach claimed that her mother and baby brother, who had begun crying, were shot multiple times after her mother, wanting to save

1947-705: The Soviets more than 50 years prior. Eliach questioned the lack of the Polish investigation into other murders of Jews by Poles in Poland, and into Holocaust denial in Poland. According to a documentary article in Gazeta Wyborcza written in 2000 in which Eliach was interviewed, Eliach herself claimed that the Polish Home Army slogan was "Poland without Jews" and that it planned the mass extermination of all Jewish people within Poland. The article also mentioned her stating that

2006-555: The advent of professional historiography in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when historians began to critically analyze primary sources to verify various claims. That necessitated the publication of primary sources. The first Lithuanian Chronicle, the Supraśl Manuscript , was published in 1823 by Ignacy Daniłowicz  [ pl ] . In 1846, Teodor Narbutt published the Bychowiec Chronicle . Other historians published other manuscripts that they had found. In 1860s,

2065-522: The berries that grow in such abundance in the region. Not realizing they were still sizzling hot, he took a big bite and scorched his tongue, which caused him to yell "Heishe-shok!" (Hot sauce!) at the top of his lungs." Eišiškės is mentioned for the first time in the Treaty of Königsberg (1384) between Grand Duke Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights . East of the town there is a castle site, dating back from

2124-545: The building and established a command post. The school was bombed and suffered heavy damage. After the war, the school was rebuilt and classes commenced in three languages: Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian. As the number of students grew, an extension was built in 1967. Russian school moved out in 1983 and Lithuanian in 1992. In 2006, the Polish school earned the name of Eišiškės Gymnasium and had 602 students and 79 teachers. The Lithuanian school, named after Stanislovas Rapalionis , had 460 students in 2006. The Russian "Viltis" school

2183-422: The chronicles of Maciej Stryjkowski ; also Narbutt is suspected to have falsified several other historical documents. However, new evidence came to light that portions of the chronicle were published in 1830. Historians now suggest that similarity with Stryjkowski's works resulted from using the same document, maybe even the original third redaction, as the source. Further, in 2011, Lithuanian historians discovered

2242-574: The event as being an attack on Jews while showing that her family and friends "were clearly on the side of the NKVD and even directly served them" and thus became part of the "Soviet repressive structure". John Radzilowski said that Eliach believed that the Home Army with the help of the Catholic Church held a conference similar to the Wanesee Conference in which a plan to mass murder all remaining Jews

2301-472: The fact that the Home Army in the Vilnius region fought with Soviet partisans for the liberation of Poland. That's why Jews that belonged to the other side were killed by the Home Army as enemies of Poland, and not as Jews". Polish-Jewish journalist Adam Michnik , founder of the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, said she insulted Poland and that while "individual anti-Semitic excesses could have happened(...)it

2360-510: The footsteps of Holocaust revisionists, set out to deny the truth about the murder of Zipporah and Hayyim Sonenzon, my mother and baby brother". Historian Jaroslaw Wolkonowski did not deny the incident, but said Eliach omitted to mention that her family was harboring a Soviet spy and that her father was a supporter of the Soviet Union, who had occupied the area from Poland and later Nazi Germany. Polish Historian Tadeusz Piotrowski questioned

2419-578: The legend. It also concentrated more on the Catholic Church than earlier revisions, which paid closer attention to Eastern Orthodoxy . It is an important source for the late 15th century events, especially years of Alexander Jagiellon . The popularity of the Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia and all of Ruthenia , published by Maciej Stryjkowski in 1582, pushed the old handwritten Lithuanian chronicles into obscurity. They were rediscovered with

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2478-507: The myths created in the chronicles persisted even to the beginning of the 20th century. The first or the short redaction (also known as Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania or Letopisec Litovskii ) was compiled sometime in the 1420s in Smolensk , when Vytautas the Great hoped to be crowned as King of Lithuania . This redaction included the earliest known historical account produced in

2537-418: The old Jewish cemetery where SS men ordered them to undress and stand at the edge of open pits. There, Lithuanian auxiliary troops shot them. The old cemetery is now a site of remembrance with a memorial stone in three languages. The new cemetery was destroyed in 1953 and turned into the yard of a kindergarten. Some of the private Jewish buildings survive and are protected as part of the urban heritage. One school

2596-653: The population, and as the town grew, the proportion of Jewish residents increased, hitting a peak of 80% in 1820. According to the 1921 Polish Census , Jews no longer constituted majority in the town ( Poles 1688 (70,86%), Jews 687 (28,84%), 7 Tatars (0,3%). In the Holocaust , German troops came in Eišiškės on June 23, 1941, and on September 21, 1941, an SS Einsatzgruppen entered the town, accompanied by Lithuanian auxiliaries. More than four thousand Jews from Eishishok and its neighboring towns and villages were first imprisoned in three synagogues and then taken in groups of 250 to

2655-465: The preservation of the memory of the Holocaust from a survivor's vantage point. She preserved her memories (via lecture) on video and audiocassettes, and her research provided much material used in courses on the Holocaust in the United States. She thought her generation "the last link with the Holocaust", and considered it her responsibility to document the tragedy in terms of life, not death, bringing

2714-399: The rest of the family, stepped out of a closet they were hiding in, and that she survived underneath her mother's body that had fallen back down on her in the closet. Eliach said her family members were shot deliberately in an act of antisemitism. Eliach emigrated to Palestine in 1946, changing her name Yaffa Ben Shemesh, a play on words of her previous Yiddish name, Shayna Sonenzon (Yaffa

2773-504: The school while still a teenager. The couple emigrated to the United States in 1954. Eliach received her B.A. in 1967 and her M.A. in 1969 from Brooklyn College, New York and a Ph.D. in 1973 from City University of New York in Russian intellectual history, studying under Saul Lieberman and Salo Baron . From 1969, Eliach served as a professor of history and literature in the department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College . She created

2832-517: The tellers of the tales, who bear witness, to the reader who is stunned and enriched." In memory of her native Eishyshok she wrote There Once Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok (1998). The book was a finalist for the National Book Award. Eliach's eyewitness testimony was published and widely disseminated in a New York Times op-ed, in which she said she was a victim of

2891-536: Was attached to the Lithuanian school. Lithuanian Chronicles The Lithuanian Chronicles ( Lithuanian : Lietuvos metraščiai ; also called the Belarusian-Lithuanian Chronicles ) are three redactions of chronicles compiled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . All redactions were written in the Ruthenian language and served the needs of Lithuanian patriotism. The first edition, compiled in

2950-454: Was discarded by modern historians as nothing more than a myth. While many modern historians discount the text as useless, it can still provide useful bits and pieces of Lithuanian history as it incorporates many garbled fragments of earlier, now lost, documents and chronicles. Also, the mythical Palemon is a good evidence of political tensions and cultural ideology of the Lithuanian nobles in

3009-452: Was discussed, and death of her family was part of a "Polish Final Solution". Radzilowski also stated that Eliach was questioned on her claims and documents supporting them by members of US Holocaust Memorial Museum Memorial Council, and responded by joking "they didn't have Xerox machines", later changing her version to stating that the documents were found by Soviet secret police, and later again changing her claim and stating that this document

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3068-498: Was finished in 1852 and the church preserves its basic design to this day. The church, built of field stones, has a portico with six Doric columns. It is accompanied by a four-story belfry with a Baroque cap. The church lost its tower. The plain exterior is contrasted with the interior, decorated in light Baroque style. Three paintings, housed in the church, are protected as monuments of national importance. The former synagogues are either destroyed or abandoned, including one that

3127-560: Was found by her father and NKVD in raid against the Home Army The Polish Ministry of Justice asked the U.S. Justice Department to allow lawyers to interview Eliach so that a case could be opened to investigate if any guilty party was still alive. Eliach refused, saying that the request was "couched in Orwellian language" about bringing the killers of her mother and brother to justice, when they were already tried and punished by

3186-403: Was popular and often copied. It shaped the political mentality of the Lithuanian nobility, formed the basis for the Lithuanian historiography until the dawn of the 20th century, and inspired many literary works. Several manuscripts are known: The third and most extensive redaction is known as the Bychowiec Chronicle . It is based on the second redaction. It is believed that this redaction

3245-478: Was prepared around the same time as the second redaction with support from Albertas Goštautas . The only known version was discovered in a manor owned by Aleksander Bychowiec and was published in full by Teodor Narbutt in 1846. This chronicle was updated to include events up to 1574. Initially there were doubts if the chronicle is authentic and some suggested that Narbutt falsified it. The doubts were inspired by its sudden discovery and its peculiar similarity with

3304-594: Was probably built in 1398 by Grand Duke Vytautas . It was one of the first churches built in Lithuania after the Christianization of Lithuania in 1385. It is suggested that the church was burned during the Lithuanian Civil War (1431–1435) . It was rebuilt on another site. About 1500 a second church was built in the southern part of the town. Likely both churches burned down during the Muscovite invasion. A small poor church

3363-703: Was published as volumes 32 (1975) and 35 (1980) of the Complete Collection . However, despite the discovery of several other manuscripts since 1907, the new volumes did not include them. Yaffa Eliach Yaffa Eliach (May 31, 1935 – November 8, 2016 ) was an American historian, author, and scholar of Judaic studies and the Holocaust . In 1974, she founded the Center for Holocaust Studies, Documentation and Research in Brooklyn, New York , which collected over 2,700 audio interviews of Holocaust survivors as well as thousands of physical artifacts. Eliach created

3422-456: Was rebuilt, but before it could be improved it was burned by the Swedes. In 1707, a wooden church was built with a two-story tower and three-story belfry. By the 1770s, it was falling apart and needed reconstruction. The construction included the rectory and a wooden parish school. In 1845 a plan was drafted by historian Teodor Narbutt for a new brick church in neoclassical style . The construction

3481-531: Was reconstructed into a sport hall by the authorities of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic . The first school, attached to the church, was established in 1524. It was one of the first schools in Lithuania. A seven-year school was established in 1921, but up until 1938 it did not have a separate building and had to rent rooms from private individuals. Before the new school building could properly open, World War II began and Germans seized

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