Edwin & Alma N. '51 Lakin Holocaust Library & Resource Center: Yashek Collection

You can now view part of the Yashek Collection online!

Click here to view the Yashek Collection on Shared Shelf Commons

New items will continue to be added so check back often!

The Story of My Life

This website contains access to the materials from Richard J. Yashek's life and the events that surrounded it. It expands on his memoir, The Story of My Life, and connects us, not only to the wealth of archival materials he left behind, but to numerous other sources of information.

Born Juergen Jaschek in Luebeck, Germany on February 15, 1929, Richard, his parents and younger brother Jochen lived a normal life until 1935, when Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party began to change the daily life of all German Jews. In 1941, the Yashek family was deported to Latvia. In March 1942, the family was separated. Richard stayed with his father; his younger brother was with his mother. Richard never saw his mother or brother again. After October 1944, he never saw his father again either. Richard survived and eventually came to the United States with the help of his mother’s family. In his book, he tells the story of what happened to him.

This website will be a work in progress until all of the materials donated by the Yashek family are digitized and loaded on the site. The site will contain

• More extensive coverage of everything in the book, including correspondence, newspaper articles, contemporary historical material, photographs, and the contents of the box Richard Yashek’s mother, Lucy Jaschek, stored with neighbors.
• Itineraries, speeches, official presentations and remarks by community leaders.
• Some of the voluminous outpouring of student responses to Richard’s talks, both in the United States and in Germany.
• Expansion on the official documents of Richard Yashek’s life, from the marriage certificate of his parents to his military service in the United States armed services after the war, to his philanthropic efforts at home to his personal involvement in education and healing abroad.

The website also includes the appendix to this book:

• a glossary of people, words and events (with a cross reference to pages where they are mentioned)
• a chronology of events

The materials currently available include

The Story of My Life, online version

• I. Original Story - start reading The Story of My Life
• II. My Amazing Visit to Germany
• III. Key Documents
• IV. Appendix

Finally, since the archive of documents is extensive and the website only shows a portion of the collection, the website will provide a complete catalog of the documents presented by Richard J. Yashek’s family to the Holocaust Resource Center at Albright College. These select items from the Richard J. Yashek Archive are posted thanks to the generosity of the family and Albright College. The entire archive is available at Albright College, Reading, Contact Us

Copyright © 2009 Lakin Holocaust Resource Center @ Albright College

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Last updated on May 13, 2013