From the Shtetl to America

Jacob Rassen's life (1905 - 1986) reflects much of the Jewish history of the twentieth century from the last years of the Eastern European <i>shtetl</i> to modern America. His life was shaped by four wars: two local wars in Lithuania and the two World Wars. <p> As a young man Jacob developed a passion for agronomy. He taught and wrote extensively. As an agronomist he traveled to Denmark and Russia. He spent a year in Palestine starting a school of agronomy in the early days of the <i>kibbutz</i> movement.<p> Jacob remained in Europe during World War II. He survived the Dvinsk and Riga ghettos concentration camps and a year as a partisan fighter. His first wife and two children were killed in 1943 as the Dvinsk ghetto was liquidated.<p> In 1946 Jacob remarried and emigrated to the United States where he started a new life and family. He lived mostly in Massachusetts and spent his last year in San Francisco.<p> Jacob recorded a nine hour narrative in 1986. The transcript captures his gift for story telling his passion for life and his remarkable tale of survival.