Reichsleiterio Rosenbergo operatyvinio štabo okupuotoms sritims Darbo grupė Lietuvoje
- Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die besetzten Gebiete Arbeitsgruppe Litauen
- Vilnius Branch of the Rosenberg Operative Command of the Lithuanian General Region
History
In September 1941, the Nazis established the Vilnius and Kaunas divisions of the Alfred Rosenberg Headquarters. The goal of these units was to collect Lithuania’s Jewish artistic and cultural valuables, which amounted to the plundering and destruction of a large portion of Lithuanian Jewry’s cultural heritage. The Strashun, Balosher, and YIVO libraries, the Sh. An-sky Museum and the Kaunas Society of History and Ethnography were ransacked. A group of approximately twenty inmates from the Vilnius ghetto were forced to assist the Rosenberg Headquarters in this infamous work. Those Jewish intellectuals risked their lives to save the valuable items. The brigade of the twenty included Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerl Kaczerginski, future founders of the post-war Vilnius Jewish museum. Some Lithuanian non-Jewish intellectuals, such as Assistant Professor M. Abramowicz, Vilnius University librarian Ona Šimaitė, and writer Kazys Boruta, helped the Jews in their endeavors. In the ghetto, special hiding places were prepared to store the rescued items.
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0