The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

"She Was Washing Her Hair, and Then The Bombs Started Falling": The Beginning of World War Two in Vilna

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Rivka Augenfeld, native Yiddish speaker and active member of the Montreal Jewish community, describes the German invasion of Vilna, the day her mother was supposed to graduate high school.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Rivka Augenfeld.

This excerpt is in English.

Rivka Augenfeld was born in Graz, Austria in 1946.

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Other video highlights from this oral history

My Father, Dangerously Branded as A "Trotskyist"

4 min 10 sec

The Heart of Secular Yiddish Culture: My Mother's Education in Pre-War Vilna

4 min 15 sec

Litvak & Varshe: Code-Switching Between Yiddish Accents As A Child

2 min 51 sec

One Tiny Question for Bashevis Singer

50 sec

A Post-WWII Tragedy: The Challenge To Find Good Yiddish Editors and Translators

2 min 27 sec

My Parents Might Not Be Admitted into Canada Today: Partisans As Irregular Combatants

1 min 34 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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