July 1934
A regional committee of the United Party in Memel (Klaipeda), Lithuania
In the first row at the center wearing a white shirt is Yehudit Leshem. Born in 1898 in Gruzdziai, Lithuania, Leshem was a well-known community activist before the war. She provided assistance to refugees from Poland who fled to Lithuania in 1940 after the German conquest of Poland. She also helped Lithuanian Jewish prisoners in work camps and various cities in the Soviet Union.
The majority of Memel’s population was German, yet the city was separated from the rest of Germany after World War I. Consequently, the city’s German citizens demanded its return to Germany. After Hitler’s rise to power, these demands reached new heights, accompanied as well by antisemitic riots. Before the war there were approximately 9,000 Jews living in the city; the Jews made up one-fifth of the city’s population.
After Memel was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1939 almost all of Memel’s Jews fled to Lithuania. Like Lithuanian Jewry, the vast majority of Memel’s Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.
Yad Vashem Photo Archives 3883/3627
