This is the story of one Lithuanian Jewish family, and all the things history threw at them.
Study Guides
PREWAR
During the Middle Ages, Lithuania was a large and powerful country. However in 1795, Lithuania was taken by the Russian Empire and remained occupied until 1918. Read more about the early history of Lithuania, and its occupation by the Russian Empire that ended with Lithuania’s Declaration of Independence on February 16th, 1918.
JEWISH LIFE IN LITHUANIA
Ranana grew up in a Lithuanian town called Vilkaviskis. Vilkaviskis had a rich Jewish heritage and a considerable Jewish population – as Ranana states in the film, before the Second World War, 3000 of the 7000 inhabitants were Jewish. Find out more, and learn about the town's wooden synagogue that Ranana mentions in the video, by exploring this website.
WWII
In 1940, the Soviet Red Army invaded Lithuania (as well as the other countries specified in the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and occupied the territory once again. More information about the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states can be found here, as well as a timeline of the events that took place in 1939-1940.