Historical Context

Timeline of Events in Vilna (1939–1945)

1939:

September: Nazi Germany invades Poland. The Soviet Union also invades and occupies eastern Poland, according to the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact.
October: The Soviet Union transfers Vilna to Lithuania.

1940:

June: The Soviet Union occupies and annexes Lithuania. Vilna becomes part of the Soviet Union.

1941:

June 22: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union. German forces enter Vilna.
July: Mass killings of Vilna's Jewish population begin in Ponary (Paneriai).
September: The Nazis establish two ghettos in Vilna. Yitskhok Rudashevski begins writing his diary, documenting life within the ghetto.
October: Liquidation of Ghetto number 2, with the residents being murdered at Ponary.
Throughout 1941: Mass killings continue in Ponary.

1942:

Formation of the Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO), a Jewish resistance organization within the ghetto. From this time until the spring of 1943, there is a relative pause in the mass killing operations. This period is known in Yiddish as, “di shtile tsayt” or quiet period. However, the terrible conditions within the Ghetto continue.

1943:

September: The Nazis begin the final liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto. Resistance efforts intensify. Yitskhok Rudashevski, along with his family, go into hiding.
Most of the remaining ghetto inhabitants are murdered in Ponary or sent to extermination camps.
It is believed that Yitskhok Rudashevski and his family were killed during the ghetto liquidation, likely in Ponary with the exception of Sore Voloshin (Sarah Kalivitz) who escaped Gestapo headquarters.

1944:

Yitskhok Rudashevski's diary is discovered by his cousin (Sore).

1945:

The Soviet Army liberates Vilna.

What is the reason for the staggering scale of collaboration by Lithuanians?

The Holocaust in Lithuania is the most extensive in all affected countries, reducing pre-War Jewish population from 210,000 to only 15,000. The figure likely a bit higher as the Soviet Union deported 7,000 Jews after the occupation of Lithuania. The total destruction of Lithuanian Jewry is the direct result of an extensive Lithuanian collaboration. The first pogroms started even before Germans entered the country. One publication called Nazis not instigators, but enablers to Lithuanians. This is, of course, an exaggeration, but barely.