Holocaust commemoration: Yizkor (memorial) books

January 30, 2015 | Irena

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Yizkor book of Lyubcha and Delyatichi

On January 27, 2015 the world commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

In the period following World War II, Holocaust survivors wrote Yizkor (memorial) books to preserve the memory of families -- and in some cases entire Jewish communities -- destroyed during the war. These books were originally written in Yiddish or Hebrew and, until recently, were not available in English translation. Fortunately for the English-speaking world, the Jewish genealogical organization JewishGen developed the Yizkor Book Project.

To date, Toronto Public Library has acquired print copies of seventeen titles, which are shelved in the Local History and Genealogy collection, 2nd floor, Toronto Reference Library. They represent the following communities:

Antopol, Belarus

Brzeziny, Poland

Buczacz, Galicia

Ciechanow, Poland

Czenstochow, Poland

Dzialoszyce, Poland

Horodenka, Ukraine

Jaslo, Poland

Lyubcha and Delyatichi, Belarus

Novogrudok, Poland

Orhei, Moldova

Ostrow Mazowiecka, Poland

Podhajce, Ukraine

Rozniatow, Ukraine

Ruzhany, Belarus

Telekhany, Belarus

Yampol, Ukraine

Please refer to the research guide Jewish Genealogy for additional library resources .

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