Towards Zionism: Life Story of Rudolfas Valsonokas in the XXth Century

Abstract

Abstract. Jewish journalist, lawyer and businessman Rudolfas Valsonokas is known in Lithuanian historiography as the author of the book “Klaipėda problem”, in which he analysed the political and socio-economical processes in the Klaipėda (Memel) region. However, other significant features of Rudolf Valsonok’s biography remain unknown. Based on documents from Lithuanian and German archives, historiographical and other materials, the article analyses the details of Rudolf Valsonok’s biography, his activities in the Klaipėda region, contacts with the Polish diplomats, his life (survival) in the Kaunas ghetto and the Dachau Concentration Camp, and his ideological drift from folkism to Zionism after his liberation from the Dachau concentration camp.