''Where Once We Walked'' (full title: ''Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in The Holocaust''), compiled by noted
genealogist
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family ...
Gary Mokotoff
Gary Mokotoff (born April 26, 1937) is an author, lecturer, and Jewish genealogy researcher. Mokotoff is the publisher of ''Avotaynu Magazine, AVOTAYNU, the International Review of Jewish Genealogy,'' and is the former president of the IAJGS, Inte ...
and
Sallyann Amdur Sack with Alexander Sharon, is a
gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or wikt:directory, directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a co ...
of 37,000 town names in
Central and
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
focusing on those with
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
populations in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries and most of whose Jewish communities were almost or completely destroyed during
The Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.
Overview
The book includes a
cross-reference
The term cross-reference (abbreviation: xref) can refer to either:
* An instance within a document which refers to related information elsewhere in the same document. In both printed and online dictionaries cross-references are important because ...
d listing of some 23,000 towns (plus
alternate names), with the contemporary spelling being primary, associated country (according to contemporary borders), orientation and distance in kilometers from the country's
capital city
A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...
, and
map coordinates. The main list is followed by an additional listing organized according to a
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
index based on the
Daitch–Mokotoff Soundex
Daitch–Mokotoff Soundex (D–M Soundex) is a phonetic algorithm invented in 1985 by Jewish genealogists Gary Mokotoff and Randy Daitch. It is a refinement of the Russell and American Soundex algorithms designed to allow greater accuracy in mat ...
system.
Revised edition
A second, revised edition (2002), expanded with additional entries and alternate names, provides updated spellings reflecting current geopolitical naming conventions.
''Judaica Librarianship'' called ''Where Once We Walked'', "the de facto print gazetteer of the
shtetlekh of the
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...
."
See also
*
JewishGen
JewishGen is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 as an international electronic resource for Jewish genealogy. In 2003, JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York ...
*
List of villages and towns depopulated of Jews during the Holocaust
*
List of shtetls
References
External links
JewishGen Gazetteer and JewishGen Communities Databasesearch engines of th
JewishGenwebsite.
Sallyann Sack PapersP-917; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.
1991 non-fiction books
History books about the Holocaust
Books about cultural geography
Gazetteers
History books about Jews and Judaism
Jewish genealogy
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