This collection explores the hand-drawn maps included in yizker bikher – collectively authored, place-based, post-Holocaust memorial books.

The maps, created by survivors and prewar emigres, depict the large towns and small shtetls that populated Eastern Europe before the Second World War, and provide profound insight into the structure, culture, and ultimate destruction of these once-thriving communities. Each map tells a story - of synagogues, marketplaces, homes, and institutions - that serves as a historical record of vibrant Jewish life and the devastating consequences of the Holocaust.