Lazar Epstien — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Dr. Epstein, an expert in public health, was head of the Sanitation and Epidemiological Department of the ghetto from its inception in the fall of 1941 until it was liquidated in the fall of 1943. Besides the reports and notes about public matters, he also recorded his thoughts and impressions. In his diary, he wrote in detail about health, cultural and educational activities and, frequently brought charts and data about different aspects of living, thereby providing a very comprehensive picture of life and death in the Vilna Ghetto.

Dr. Epstein's writings are particularly interesting because of his observations of the changes wrought by the German occupation on inter-generational relations, gender relationships and the social stratum that was created in the ghetto, as well as the implications of those changes on the daily personal and public lives of the Jews. It was not uncommon for Epstein to reveal the moral and social breakdown of the Jewish society in the ghetto. In his diary he recorded the communal organization through the Judenrat, the history of the two ghettos and their liquidation, the Jewish police force and the Revisionists (Betar) movement.  Dr. Epstein also included personal notes written by sanitation workers, details and figures of the educational system, the large range of cultural activities, food rationing, struggles within the Judenrat, the cruelty of the Lithuanians towards the Jews, the more benevolent attitude of the Poles, the role of the underworld in the killings, the melinas – the bunkers and the names of those who were there.