Records of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

In 2015, YIVO, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (MMNLL), the Lithuanian Central State Archives, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences began a joint project to digitize all of YIVO’s pre-World War II collections for the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections. Originally it was thought that the MMNLL held rare books relevant to this project but no archival materials. In 2017, however, a large cache of YIVO papers was discovered in the Library’s possession. These materials were hidden among the nooks and crannies of the 18th-century church and Carmelite monastery in which the Book Chamber of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was located during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. Antanas Ulpis, the Lithuanian librarian who oversaw the Book Chamber worked to hide YIVO’s materials, and others similarly at risk, from destruction during that time. The contents of the Book Chamber were absorbed by the MMNLL when it was formed.