A History of YIVO’s Prewar Archival Collections from 1925 to 2001

Abstract

This article discusses YIVO's prewar collections, their looting and dispersion during the Holocaust, and the various subsequent efforts to recover them. The article includes a brief overview of YIVO's founding and prewar activities; a discussion of the Nazi looting of YIVO's materials during the Holocaust and the heroic efforts by Jews to save these materials during and after the war; YIVO's shift of its headquarters to New York City in 1939–1940; the US Government restitution of materials to YIVO in 1947; and efforts to reclaim additional materials from Lithuania from 1989 to 2001. The article closes with a brief note on YIVO's newly completed Vilna Collections Project to digitally reunite YIVO's pre-war materials in New York City with materials housed in three Lithuanian repositories.