You may not know his name, or his diary, but just like Anne Frank’s written words, Yitskhok Rudashevski’s writings stand as a powerful testament to the voices of teenagers lost in the Holocaust.
Rudashevski was not just a teenager; he was a gifted writer, a keen observer and a voice for his generation trapped in one of history’s darkest chapters. Born on Dec. 10, 1927, in Vilnius, then a part of Poland, Rudashevski grew up in a middle-class Jewish family. His passions were reading and writing. In 1941, at age 14, he started writing his diary, creating a detailed, first-hand account of the harsh conditions and the daily struggles of life in the ghetto.
“He wrote about the cultural and educational activities that took place within the ghetto despite the dire circumstances, as well as the deportations and executions,” said Jonathan Brent, executive director and CEO of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. “Jews like Yitskhok defied the Nazi regime by refusing to relinquish their culture and identity.”
Now, YIVO is bringing Rudashevski’s words to life in a new digital exhibition, “Yitskhok Rudashevski: A Teenager’s Account of Life and Death in the Vilna Ghetto.” This exhibition marks the second installment of the YIVO Bruce and Francesca Cernia Slovin Online Museum and will be available free to the global public starting July 17 at museum.yivo.org.
The exhibition, created in partnership with top scholars, marks a major step forward in digital museums and Holocaust education. It features multimedia elements like animation, graphic novels, and video dramatizations, all crafted to vividly bring Rudashevski’s tragic yet inspiring story to life.
“Through these multimedia experiences, we explore cultural resistance and the moral choices individuals faced during the Holocaust,” explained Karolina Ziulkoski, chief curator of the YIVO Online Museum and an award-winning interactive designer.
Rudashevski’s diary offers a window into the daily lives and struggles of Ghetto inhabitants, depicting both the harsh realities and the efforts to maintain a semblance of normalcy.
“He documented scenes of Jewish suffering and resistance, showing how he and his friends tried to live fully, studying, creating art, and documenting the oppression they faced,” noted Alexandra Zapruder, co-curator of the exhibition and editor of “Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust.”
Rudashevski’s diary lay untouched in the family’s hiding place for well over a year. When his cousin, Sore, returned to Vilna after the city’s liberation, she went back to the family’s hiding place to see if anything remained. There, she found a few family photos and the diary, ensuring that Rudashevski’s extraordinary record of daily life in the ghetto would be safeguarded and preserved.
“YIVO’s digital initiatives bring public access to the treasures in our collections,” Brent added. “This exhibition will transform how audiences connect with Jewish history.”
