Ona Simaite Papers

Lithuanian librarian and literary critic. Ona Simaite, librarian and literary critic at Vilna University, 1941-44, was involved in clandestine aid to the Jewish ghetto during the German occupation. She was arrested and sent to Dachau and later to a camp in Southern France. Upon liberation she stayed in France and moved from there in l953 to Israel where she remained until her death in l970. Her story forms chapter one of Philip Friedman's Their Brothers' Keepers (New York, l957). Correspondence, notes, memorabilia, and photographs, relating to underground aid to the Jewish ghetto inhabitants of Vilnius, Lithuania, during the German occupation, 1941-1944. Most of the correspondence is in Lithuanian and dates from the l956-l970 period. Of greatest use is a 2l page handwritten account (in Lithuanian) on conditions in the ghetto for the l941-44 period.