A trove of 170,000 Jewish documents thought to have been destroyed by the Nazis during World War II has been found.
On Tuesday, the New York-based YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announced the find, which contains unpublished manuscripts by famous Yiddish writers as well as religious and community documents.
Among the finds are letters written by Sholem Aleichem, a postcard by Marc Chagall, and poems and manuscripts by Chaim Grade
YIVO, which was founded in Vilnius in what is now Lithuania, hid the documents in 1940, but the organisation moved its headquarters to New York during World War II. The documents were later preserved by a Lithuanian librarian, Antanas Ulpis, who kept them in the basement of the church where he worked.
Most of the documents are currently in Lithuania, but 10 items are being displayed through January at YIVO, which is working with the Lithuanian government to archive and digitise the collection.
