Antisemitism -- Europe

Consists of a letter written by Abelson from Nemaksht, Lithuania, in a beautiful script and unusually elegant language, to his friend Louis Wigdor in Missouri, describing his personal condition and some aspects of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and inquiring about conditions and job opportunities in America. Of interest are references to anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe and the revival of Hebrew as a living language.

The bulk of the collection contains documents generated by the Judenrats of the Vilna ghetto during Nazi occupation. The Yiddish poets Abraham Sutzkever and Szmerke Kaczerginski, interned in the Vilna Ghetto before escaping to the forests as partisans, were instrumental in the removal of this collection from Vilna and its subsequent transfer to the YIVO Archives in New York. The collection is therefore named in their honor.

This collection contains manuscripts and printed copies of letters and memorials presented by the Jewish community of the United States (including those passed by a convention of Delegates of Israelites held in Baltimore and the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina) to President James Buchanan in 1857, protesting the infringement of American Jewish rights in The Treaty signed with The Swiss Confederation in 1850. Also included is a copy of The Treaty and newspaper clippings relating to the protest.

The Wiener Library in London is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. Formed in 1933, the Library contains some of the earliest primary sources on National Socialism. The Library’s unique collection includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony.