The 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies

Diary from Hell in Transnistria 1942–1944. The Diary of Lipman Kundstadt: The Jewish Leadership in the Djurin Ghetto in Transnistria. Max Rosenstrauch vs Moshe Katz

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Lipman Kunstadt and his extended family were deported to Transnistria from Rădăuţi Bucovina in Romania in October 1941. Following difficult days of wandering, they finally reached the Djurin Ghetto where they struggled to survive until liberation in summer 1944. Kunstadt was secretary of the Jewish Council in the ghetto and left an impressive diary (over 400 pages in Yiddish), which covers the years he spent in the ghetto. The diary contains rich descriptions of daily life in the ghetto and the struggle to survive.

In my lecture, I will present the way Kunstadt described and critiqued the efforts to organize self-help institutions: the way in which the Jewish council was established in the Djurin Ghetto, especially critiquing the main protagonists: Max Rosenstrauch vs Moshe Katz as the leaders of the ghetto.