Item 278571. THE WAY WE WERE BEFORE OUR DESTRUCTION: LIVES OF JEWISH STUDENTS FROM VILNA, WHO PERISHED DURING THE HOLOCAUST.

THE WAY WE WERE BEFORE OUR DESTRUCTION: LIVES OF JEWISH STUDENTS FROM VILNA, WHO PERISHED DURING THE HOLOCAUST.

Baltimore/New York, Via Press/YIVO, 1997. Item #42938

1st edition. ISBN 9781885563064 Original photographic paper covers, 12mo, 221 pages Includes Appendix of “Documents from Archives”. Illustrated with numerous photos.
Describes the life in a private high school in the final decade before the Second World War, in Vilna the capital of Lithuania, and the center of Jewish learning in Eastern Europe. The students, here, in their own words from before their murders, describe their lives.
“Yulian (Yulik) Rafes, author of this book, was a student and president of our class in a Vilna (Lithuania) high school before World War II. We well remember this young, friendly, cheerful youth.
After the war, Yulik became a physician, then professor and was in charge of a large clinic in the Ukraine….He came to the United states not long ago and is now working at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. He is involved in research in the medical history of Eastern European Jews, including the Holocaust.
Soon after the war he had a dream, to revive the memory of his schoolmates who perished so tragically during the Holocaust….Through his archival research, he found documents, compositions, report cards and school pictures. He has made the young girls and boys come alive, they share with us their dreams for the future.
Although they are not with us, on the pages of Yulik's book they are very much alive. They talk to us about their lives, which were cut down so young and so tragically.….Thank you, Yulik, for all this, from us the living and the ones who left us” (Vera Toper nee Shapiro Lily Margules nee Mazur, class of the same high school, survivors of the Vilna Ghetto, from the rear cover).
Very Good Condition (YIZ-22-27-+).

Price: $125.00