The goal was to locate a lost ancestral village. One lost village. This shtetl (small Jewish village), Rumshishok, is like thousands of small Jewish villages in Eastern Europe with a slight twist. It had a city center, a bathhouse, a rabbi’s house a synagogue and a cemetery. Rumshishok had been in central Lithuania with a population of 496 individuals and perhaps only 50 families in the early 20th century. They lived in close proximity to their non-Jewish neighbors until 1941. Then everything changed.
Today, the village of Rumshishok sits under a man-made lagoon or lake called Lake Kaunas. The dam and the lagoon were created by the Soviets over a decade after the Holocaust. A team of scientists used sonar, divers, ground penetrating radar, and other geoscience technology to find the village in the lagoon and the mass grave on land of the Jews of Rumshishok.
Join us for a discussion with the team of scientists - Richard Freund, Harry Jol, Phil Reeder, Paul Bauman, and Alastair McClymont - and the person who spawned this endeavor, Elliot Matz.
Upon registration, you will be provided with a link to a documentary about the discovery. It is recommended that you watch the documentary prior to the April 11 discussion. The film will not be shown at the April 11 program.