Richard Schofield
April 24,2024

Private & Confidential

CAMERA OBSCURA
Pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish Photographs

Destroyed │ Displaced │ Re(dis)covered │ Reclaimed

SITE MAP

Home The main proposal.

Appendix Practical and logistical information in support of the main proposal.

Directory An early 'proto' (and very much ongoing) version of the final proposed directory around which the entire project revolves. An example of what's to come. Not a finished piece.

Project Questionnaire By far one of the most important elements of the project. The current version is in the very early stages of development.

At Risk Just one of the many examples of professional incompetence that plagues Lithuania's contemporary cultural and memory institutions.

Photographic Glass Plate Negatives A brief history. Also contains information suggesting that many of these extraordinary artefacts survived the Holocaust and must be stored somewhere. 

The First Red Flag This bizarre encounter with a Lithuanian civil servant in January 2022 gave a clear indication that not everything is as it seems.

Features Some basic ideas for what will become an essential part of the project.

Cantonist Lists Ask any member of staff at the Kaunas Regional State Archives if they have any pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographs among their collections and they'll tell you that they don't. The truth is, they do.

A Unique Individual? The extraordinary story of the Lithaunian museum director Pranas Genys is the only publicly acknowledged instance of a non-Jew 'saving' Jewish cultural treasures, including 3,000 glass plate negatives, during the German occupation. Certain details surrounding the case do however suggest that he wasn't the only museum worker carrying out similar 'rescue' work during the summer of 1941.   

Press Photography A subject that's so far raised zero interest among historians. 

Family Photo Albums Not unlike the Cantonist Lists (see above), old family photo albums that are sometimes donated to Lithuanian cultural institutions are often not regarded—or recorded—as being photographic material.

Record Books Essential documents for any provenance researcher working in Lithuania today.

The Kassels The story of a murdered Lithuanian Jewish family from Kaunas whose photographs were discovered in their former attic in 2016 provides strong evidence that not all surviving pre-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish photographs have yet been accounted for.

Site Map This page.

Old Proposal The document that you're currently reading is based on this earlier one.

The Useless Archive A related project to digitally rescue and preserve five million per-Second World War Lithuanian Jewish family photographs to 'replace' the five million that were destroyed during the Holocaust.

The Aleksotas Macevot The more than 250 extraordinary ceramic portraits on the graves of deceased Jews in the Aleksotas Jewish cemetery in Kaunas.