Joseph Levinson
Joseph Levinson was born in March 1917. He grew up in the small town (shtetl) Vishéy (Veisiejai) in Dz?kija (Southern Lithuania). He received a degree in engineering from the Technical Faculty of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. Joseph Levinson fought the Nazis as a serviceman of the 16th Lithuanian Division during World War II and was seriously injured. He is a founding figure of Vilnius’s ‘Green House’ and a historian of the Lithuanian Holocaust.
In 1941, during the massacre of the Jews in Lithuania, his father and relatives were murdered in the village of Katkišk? near Lazdéy (Lazdijai).
Joseph Levinson was the chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s Commission for Maintenance of Jewish Cemeteries and Sites of Massacre. In the early 1990s he spearheaded the Jewish community’s and museum’s work for the preservation and respectful marking of both old Jewish cemeteries and mass grave sites. It was at his initiative that the Lithuanian Jewish Cultural Society (later reorganized into the Lithuanian Jewish Community) and the State Jewish Museum presented the then Lithuanian Supreme Council with a draft resolution on restoring and preserving the Jewish cemeteries and sites of Jewish massacre. The resolution was passed at the end of 1990.
J. Levinson devoted many years to organizing and supervising the restoration and maintenance of both the mass graves and old cemeteries. The material he had collected about the sites of these mass killings was published in Skausmo knyga (The Book of Sorrow) with texts in Lithuanian, English, Hebrew, and Yiddish. He is also the author of another major work on the Holocaust in Lithuania The Shoah in Lithuania.
J. Levinson was honored for his many contributions in London’s Central Synagogue at a major event on 1 September 2010 that was attended by a UK Government minister and the Israeli Ambassador.
//josephlevinson.com/Joseph Levinson, 93, Holocaust Historian, Honored in London; But Q & A session is manipulated by translator (visit the article)
2010 Sept 2 Jewish News On Levinson http://josephlevinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/2010Sept2JewishNewsOnLevinson.pdf
2011 Feb Chersonski on Levinson http://josephlevinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Chersonski-on-Levinson-Feb-2011-Eng.pdf
JOSEPH LEVINSON (1917-2015).
Joseph, a dear and cherished friend, passed away on Thursday in Vilnius, aged 98.
A pioneering Litvak truthteller about the Lithuanian Holocaust, he assembled essential documents in his THE SHOAH IN LITHUANIA (that appeared in English and Lithuanian editions; see:www.JosephLevinson.com).
Co-founder and builder of the modern (post-Soviet) Jewish Community of Lithuania and its quadrilingual newspaper, Jerusalem of Lithuania.
Co-founder of the Jewish Museum and builder of a number of essential exhibits.
Pioneer discoverer, cataloguer and campaigner for preservation of mass grave sites AND old Jewish cemeteries.
See page 1 of www.DefendingHistory.com and the Joseph Levinson section at http://defendinghistory.com/category/levinson-joseph.
Funeral is Sunday at Vilnius Jewish Cemetery, time to be announced.
Sincerest condolences to Alex and all the family.
Joseph_Levinson at London Central Synagogue by Joseph_Levinson