Rachel Margolis

Rachel Margolis was a Holocaust survivor, partisan, and biologist who made significant contributions to documenting the Holocaust in Lithuania. Born in Vilnius in 1921, Margolis was a member of the Vilna Ghetto resistance during World War II. After escaping the ghetto, she joined the partisans fighting against the Nazis in the forests of Lithuania. Following the war, Margolis pursued a career in biology and became a respected scientist in the Soviet Union. In the post-Soviet era, she dedicated herself to preserving the memory of the Holocaust in Lithuania. She was instrumental in the discovery and preservation of the diary of Kazimierz Sakowicz, which details the Ponary massacre. Margolis faced controversy in her later years, as her efforts to document the involvement of Lithuanians in the Holocaust led to accusations against her in her homeland. She spent her final years in Israel, continuing her work until her death in 2015.

Books

A Partisan from Vilna (Jews of Poland)