LITHUANIA : INDEPENDENCE 1918-1940 : PLACES

PAKRUOJIS

Here a cover, registered, from Pakruojis in the eastern part of the county Šiauliai.

Original print size of this image: 15,350 x 10,168 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%.

The registering mark.

PALANGA

Original print size of this image: 13,928 x 8,797 cm (is something more as the postal item)

Card, sent from Palanga. Now Palanga is the largest and most famous Lithuanian seaside resort and one of the most visited resorts in Lithuania.

With the start of the Lituanian independence the area was important for the young state as approach to the sea. (later Memel/Klaipeda get this function).
The postmark, resized 50%.

In 1819 the tsarist government decided to join the Palanga sea shore from the Kaunas province to the Curonian province. So the area was under Latvian government 1919-1920. On March 30, 1921, the arbitration committee lead by a professor of Edinburgh University J. Simpson decided to give the 19,5 km long shore area with Palanga and Sventoji to Lithuania.

About this subject:

James Young Simpson en het grensverdrag tussen Letland en Litouwen, 1920-1921 / Ruud van Wijnen In: HBG 2006 ; 49. - p. 25-39

In the above mentioned book (1922) of E.J. Harrison about this place, p. 28:
Under the Simpson boundary award between Latvia and Lithuania, the latter has acquired the wateringplace Palanga on the Baltic, with valuable medicinal springs, and is considering plans for its development, together with Sventoji at the mouth of the river of that name, into an ocean port. There is indeed quite a mass of historical evidence available to show that there were in former years deep-sea harbours at both these places. During the Xlllth century, the Crusaders having taken....

Right: picture from the book of E.J. Harrison.

PANEVĖŽYS

Original print size of this image: 13,995 x 9,152 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The picture side of this card.

The postmark, resized 50%.

Another card from Panevėžys. On the picture side a view on this place.
Original print size of this image: 13,995 x 9,152 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The other side with a more clear postmark.

PAPILĖ

Card from Papilė.

Original print size of this image: 14,012 x 8,983 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

The arrival postmark is from Skaisgirys (also: Skaisgiris).

PETRAŠIŪNAI

A cover from Petrašiūnai.

Original print size of this image: 15,579 x 12,734 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

RIETAVAS

Backside of a cover from Saločiai (see below) with the postmark of Rietavas.
Original print size of this image: 15,807 x 12,810 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%.

ROKISKIS

Original print size of this image: 13,928 x 9,119 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%.

The picture side of the card.

SALOČIAI

The cover here is a nice cover - postmark of Saločiai and on the back (see above) of Rietavas-, but here we are more interested in the tekst on the cover:
"Polish force in Vilnius must give way to Lithuanian right".

Original print size of this image: 16,027 x 13,013 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

ŠIAULĖNAI

Original print size of this image: 12,624 x 6,393 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

Information about Šiaulėnai and pictures JewishGen (Jewish Genealogy): www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Siaulenai. The place -located 165 km northwest of Vilnius- had many names: Shavlan, Shavlyan, Shavlyany, Siauleny, Shyaulenay, Savlan, Shavlian, Sialenai or Szawlany.

The little card inside. The text means something as: Fun holidays, happy New Year!

ŠIAULIAI

Cover from Šiauliai.

Original print size of this image: 18,093 x 12,327 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

In the above mentioned book (1922) of E.J. Harrison about Šiauliai, p. 30:
"From an economic standpoint Šiauliai was formerly of considerable importance and should again become so, since it possesses some of the largest tanneries in the world and several confectionery factories." According this book Šiauliai is one of the 'larger cities' with a population 31.300 (p. 21).

The other side.

SIESIKAI

Original print size of this image: 15,985 x 11,717 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%.

Siesikai is located in central Lithuania. it is now a place in the municipality Ukmergė (district Vilnius). In the year 2001 the place had according Wikipedia 601 inhabitants. A very little place, but near Siesikai there is a nice castle, build in the 13th century.

SKAISGYRIS

See the card sent from Papilė: the arrival postmark is from Skaisgyris (also: Skaisgiris)

SKAUDVILĖ

Cover from Skaudvilė to Šiauliai, here indicated with the German name 'Schaulen'. In the next cover below, to the same recipient, to Lithuanian name is used.

Original print size of this image: 12,353 x 9,940 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%.

On the backside the arrival-postmark of Šiauliai.

Cover from Skaudvilė.

Original print size of this image: 15,706 x 10,245 cm (is something more as the postal item)
The postmark, resized 50%: .

On the backside the arrival-postmark of Šiauliai.

ŠVĖKŠNA

Original print size of this image: 13,851 x 10,270 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%

TELSIAI

Here a cover in three languages, Lithuanian, English and Jewish, sent from Telsiai in north-western part of Lithuania (see above -about Mažeikiai -on the map).

Original print size of this image: 18,068 x 12,277 cm (is something more as the postal item)

The postmark, resized 50%.

The sender is Avraham Yitzchok Bloch. With this rabbi the leadership of the Jews in Telsiai is already three generation in the same family. It started with his grandfather Eliezer Gordon, followed by his father Yosef Leib Bloch. He is born in 1891 and educated by his father and grandfather. In 1929 Bloch succeed his father in hid double function, Rabbi of Telsiai and 'Rosh Hayeshiva' (leader of the Yeshiva).
Many rabbis had own covers printed in Lthuanian and Hebrew, but on this cover is also used English: this rabbi travelled in 1928 to the United States for -successful- fundraising.

When boys were seven year old, some go for further education to a higher religious school, the Yeshiva, mainly with study of the Talmoed. One of the most famous yeshivas in Lithuania was the Telzh yeshiva (Telsiai yeshiva). This yeshiva was located in Telsiai from 1875 up to 1941. In 1892 the very known Volozhin teshiva was closed by the Russian authorities and Telsiai became one of the central yeshivas in Russia with between 300 and 350 students.

Under leadership od Eliezer Gordon, rabbi from 1883 to 1910, and -after his dead- Joseph Leib Bloch (1919-1930) the yeshiva became a central point within the Lithuanian Jewry.
In 1941 two daughters, a brother and brother-in-law escaped from the Germans via Japan to the United States. The brother, Rabbi Eliyahu Meit Bloch, and the brother-in-law, rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, founded in Cleveland, Ohio, the new 'Telsiai Yeshiva'.

Literature about this subject: