A Pedigreed Jew

Between There and Here – Kovno and Israel

Part of a new Holocaust remembrance series of important testimonies and memoirs from the unique collections of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre. Nechama Baruchson, a native of Kovno, was a company commander of the underground movement of the ABZ in the Kovno ghetto. After the destruction of the ghetto, she was taken to the Stutthof Concentration Camp, from which she was sent on a death march. Owing to her resourcefulness and courage, she managed to escape the rows of prisoners, going on to join the Brichah organisation and emigrate to Israel. In this retelling of her life, her daughter Safira Rapoport sets out to piece together her mother’s extraordinary journey from Kovno to Israel using archival evidence and first-hand testimony. In the process, we learn how the huge impact of the Holocaust shaped the experience of future generations of the Jewish people – contending with the shadow of collective trauma.