Embers Plucked from the Fire: The Rescue of Jewish Cultural Treasures in Vilna

by David E. Fishman Second Expanded Edition YIVO/David E. Fishman 2009, 2015 YIVO’s current publications are available for sale to libraries and retailers, including university and independent booksellers. If you are a buyer at a library or bookstore and want to place an order for this title, please contact yivomail@yivo.cjh.org. If you are an individual with interest in purchasing this title, please ask your local bookseller to carry or special order it.

A reprint of the original 1996 publication in English and Yiddish, updated and with an Appendix of Documents (English only), Embers Plucked from the Fire tells the compelling and miraculous story of the rescue of rare books and manuscripts from YIVO and other institutions in Vilna. Working as forced laborers for the Nazis, the members of what became known as the Paper Brigade, including Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski, smuggled thousands of items out of the YIVO building and into the Vilna ghetto, where they were hidden for safekeeping. The newly added Appendix to this edition provides further details of these labors as well as the effort to establish a Vilna Jewish Museum to house these and other materials after the war.