Tamar Lazerson-Rostovsky diaries

Tamar Lazerson-Rostovsky (born Tamara Lazerson) was born in 1929 in Kovno, Lithuania to Wolf and Regina Lazerson and had two brothers, Rudolph (b. 1925) and Victor (b. 1927). She grew up in an assimilated Jewish household where they spoke Lithuanian and celebrated Christian holidays. Following the German invasion of Lithuania, her father and brother, Rudolph, were captured by Lithuanian nationalists. Her father was released after they learned of his participation in the Lithuanian independence movement, but Rudolph was killed at Fort VII outside of Kovno. Tamar began keeping a diary shortly after her family was forced into the Kovno ghetto in the summer of 1941. She wrote about daily life, the struggle for food, political events, and her fears as she witnessed people dying around her. Tamar also wrote about the challenges of being alone and not having friends as well as the lack of education. In the ghetto Tamar worked in various labor brigades and later attended agricultural classes. During this period she learned Yiddish and Hebrew and joined the Zionist youth movement, Irgun Brit Zion. After the Children’s Action in March 1944, Tamar’s father arranged for her escape. On April 7, 1944, Tamar posed as a Lithuanian orphan, fled the ghetto, and went into hiding at the farm of Vera Eferiene. Before escaping, Tamar buried her dairies, but only some were found. Her father and mother were killed in concentration camps following the liquidation of the ghetto in 1944 and her brother, Victor, fled the ghetto to join the Soviet army. After the war, Tamar resettled in Kovno, where she finished high school and college. She married Michael Rostovsky, had two daughters, and immigrated to Israel in 1971.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection. The acquisition of this collection was made possible by David and Sharon Leiman.

Funding Note: The accessibility of this collection was made possible by the generous donors to our crowdfunded Save Their Stories campaign.

Funding Note: The acquisition of this collection was made possible by David and Sharon Leiman.

The Tamar Lazerson-Rostovsky diaries were acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017.