About this talk

Why were lots of Jewish people living in Lithuania in the late nineteenth century? Were their lives becoming difficult at that time and, if so, why was this? Why did some Jews emigrate? How did these people choose where to go and how did they make the move? What happened to their family and friends left behind, both during the First World War and in the inter-war period? Why and how were Lithuania's Jews murdered in the Holocaust and how has Lithuanian society tried to come to terms with this in the post-war world?

Much modern Jewish history in Lithuania is terrible. About 96 per cent of the pre-war Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust. But this book also reflects on some positive aspects of the Jewish experience in Lithuania: that for many years Lithuania was a good place for Jews to live and that those who emigrated carried with them Jewish traditions and approaches to life and learning acquired while living in Lithuania. These stood them in good stead in the countries they moved to. It meant that many Lithuanian Jewish emigrants settled into their new homes and flourished remarkably quickly.

Many people know very little about the lost world of the Jews of Lithuania. This book aims to fill that gap.

You can read more and order the book here: https://www.nicksayers.co.uk/

About the Author

Nick Sayers read history at Magdalen College, Oxford 1978-1981. He spent his working life as a corporate transactional lawyer and was a partner at several leading London law firms. He has a Masters in Historical Research from Birkbeck and is an Honorary Fellow of the Parkes Institute, University of Southampton.

Nick is a member of the advisory board of the Jewish Historical Society of England.

This book is the result of a personal quest to understand more about Nick's family background in eastern Europe. It leads him to dig deeply into many of the big questions about modern Jewish history in Lithuania. The book was published on 26 September 2024.