On 14 December 2023, EHRI released the last episode of its second EHRI podcast season, Gita’s Notes for Survival. The publication of this sixth episode coincided with the seventh day of Hanukkah, when people of Jewish faith across the world light the seventh candle on the menorah. 

On 15 December, all eight candles of the menorah were lit, their flames symbolizing courage, strength and hope. This is also the essence of Gita’s story of survival and that of the Lithuanian ghettos, Vilnius and Kovno, who succeeded in preserving their rich cultural dynamics and heritage during the Holocaust. 

Gita was a 12-year old girl who used a little booklet, her "Knizhechka", to record the terrors she witnessed. It was her own kind of light that kept her going during her time in the Kovno Ghetto and Stutthof Camp, and later on in life.

In this last episode, we can listen to Gita’s own voice and the voices of her family, her daughter and her grandchildren, who translate Gita’s testimony for us and read her notes of survival.

Gita's Notes for Survival

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Or listen here to Gita's story: