Following the Jäger report

Approximately 200,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania during the Holocaust.
The stories of about half of these victims—those who perished in the ghettos of Vilnius, Kaunas,
and Šiauliai—have been documented, studied, and preserved in historical memory.
However, the fate of the other half – the Jews from the small towns (shtetls) – has remained
largely unknown.
The film “Following the Jäger Report” is dedicated to the memory of these communities, where
only one in a hundred Jews survived.

This is the tenth and final installment in a documentary series exploring the Holocaust in the
territories of the former Soviet Union.
In this film, Boris Maftsir embarks on a journey through Lithuanian towns in an effort to
understand a profound historical rupture:
Why, in Lithuania – a country with a rich, deeply intertwined history between Jews and
Lithuanians – did many Lithuanians come to view Jews as traitors after the Soviet occupation of
1940?
How did this perception evolve into a driving force behind the persecution and mass murder of
Lithuanian Jews following the German invasion on June 22, 1941?
How did the centuries-old, vibrant Litvak history come to a brutal end within just a few months –
at the edges of mass graves?

120 min. Lithuanian / English/ Hebrew. En sub.

Israel 2016 / 66 minuets

Film by Boris Maftsir

Producers:  Zvi Shefy, Boris Maftsir
Director of photography: Ron Katzenelson
Editor: Lilia Tzvokbenkel
Design, Art & Animation: Studio Jewboy (Yaron Shin) with Noa Gilhar
Music: Avi Benjamin
Sound design: Eva Spitkovski /