Lithuanian President Visits YIVO for the Unveiling of Plaques to Honor the Vilna Ghetto “Paper Brigade” and Lithuanian Librarian Antanas Ulpis

(New York, NY) – On September 18, 2023, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research welcomed the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda to YIVO for the unveiling of two plaques in YIVO’s Strashun Rare Book Room to honor those who helped rescue the remnants of East European Jewish culture from the Nazis during World War II and the Soviets in the War’s aftermath.

In 1941, the Nazis ransacked the YIVO archives and library, located in Vilnius, Lithuania. They destroyed many books and documents but also transported much to Frankfurt to be used in the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question. Jews living in the Vilna ghetto (many of whom had been associated with YIVO) were forced to sort through the YIVO materials.

The first plaque is dedicated to a group of these Jewish slave laborers, led by Avrom Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski, who defied the Nazi order and smuggled rare books and documents out of YIVO headquarters into the Vilna Ghetto. Known as “The Paper Brigade,” these approximately three dozen people rescued hundreds of thousands of Jewish books, documents, and artifacts from the Nazis.

After the war, the materials saved by the Paper Brigade were recovered by the surviving members and then endangered again by the Soviets who had taken over Lithuania and in 1948 intended to destroy all memory of Jewish culture. Miraculously the YIVO collections were again saved, this time by a non-Jewish Lithuanian librarian, Antanas Ulpis. In 1948, Ulpis, then Director of the Lithuanian National Book Chamber, rescued and hid these materials in the church of St. George, thereby protecting them from destruction by the Soviets. The second plaque is dedicated to Antanas Ulpis.

“I am delighted to honor the heroic and courageous acts of Antanas Ulpis and the Paper Brigade in saving much of YIVO’s prewar archive from destruction. Through the Edward Blank YIVO Online Vilna Collections these materials are now available to people all over the world to discover and understand the life, language, and culture of the centuries-old Jewish civilization in Lithuania and the entire areal of Litvak Jews. The actions of Ulpis and the Paper Brigade have enabled the perpetuation of the historical, cultural and intellectual legacy of Lithuanian Jewry,” said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.

“In 2022 YIVO completed the historic Edward Blank YIVO Online Vilna Collections Project to process, conserve, and digitally reunite YIVO’s prewar archive,” said Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s Executive Director & CEO. “Without the members of the Paper Brigade and Antanas Ulpis, these materials, the heart and soul of YIVO’s Archive and Library collections, would be lost to the world forever. We are honored that together with the Lithuanian President we are able to recognize the tremendous courage of these individuals and their contribution to preserving Jewish history and culture.

“It is also very fitting that we are holding this ceremony at the time of the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto,” said Brent.

The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project was a 7-year, $7 million initiative to process, and conserve YIVO’s prewar library and archive that was divided between Vilnius and New York. Through the Project, YIVO’s prewar collections have been digitally reunited through a dedicated web portal and are accessible worldwide for the first time. The Project was an international partnership between the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. To view these materials, go to yivo.org/Vilna-Collections-Project.

Without the heroic acts of the Paper Brigade and Antanas Ulpis these materials would not exist.

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Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story