There was a rich and varied cultural life in the ghetto. Education of children had the highest priority. The first schools in the Vilna Ghetto were opened immediately following the forced resettlement of the Jews to the ghetto. Studies were disrupted on more than one occasion by the Aktionen but were renewed at the end of November. Kindergartens were established for children where both parents worked outside the home. At various periods 700-900 pupils aged 5-12 studied in the two primary schools. In the Kailis camp a primary school for about 120 pupils was established. There was also a secondary school with 100 pupils in four classes, a religious primary school with dozens of pupils and a yeshiva (Talmudic college). A teachers' association with over a hundred members was formed; lectures about education and other general topics were held under its auspices.
Lynia (b.1925) and Israel (b. 1929) were born in Vilna. They were murdered in the Klooga camp, Estonia, on 19 September 1944
From the photographs found in the pockets of murdered Jews in the Klooga camp after liberation. Most of the photographs were taken in Vilna before war.
Yad Vashem Photo Archive, 4068/87
Courtesy of The Estonian History Museum, Tallin
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 820
Rachel was born in Vilna in 1930. She was murdered at Ponary in September 1943.
Hall of Names, Yad Vashem
The order states that children Luba and Rachel Weiner should be transferred to the SiPO.
Luba and Rachel were arrested. Their father, whose real name was Shalom Sonarski, was a butcher by trade and a partisan. Both girls and their father were shot.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives, 3380/158
Yad Vashem Photo Archives, 3380/159
