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Nazis Decide to Establish Ghetto in Vilna

August 7, 1941
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Plans to isolate all of the 50,000 Jews of Vilna in a ghetto similar to the ghettos established in Nazi-held Poland have been completed by the Nazi authorities, it was reported here today. The report confirms that the Jews of Latvia may be ordered into the ghetto in Slobodka, a suburb of Kaunas.

The Nazis have decided to give the name of Ostland to the newly conquered Lithuania and the section of Latvia south of the Dvina River, including the city of Riga, the report says. Civil administration in Ostland will be entrusted to local Nazi agents. Lithuania will be divided into three administrative districts, Vilna, Kaunas and Shavli. Ghettos for Jews will be established in all these cities.

The German press which reached Stockholm today carries special pages devoted to the city of Vilna in which the Jews have been residing since the fourteenth century. Known as "the Jerusalem of Lithuania," Vilna has a colorful Jewish history and has been known as a seat of Jewish culture and the place where the Vilner Gaon lived and was buried.

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