The Meron Foundation · Atesolate Platform
The Digital Home for
the Human Record
History fragmented them. The Meron Foundation verifies them.
Atesolate restores them.
Atesolate restores them.
3
Founding Towns
127
Records (Pilot)
3
Partner Historians
12
Families Connected
Founding Pilot Communities
Thuringia, Germany
Stadtlengsfeld
Jewish community since 1639 · Virtual Museum
One of Germany's oldest continuous Jewish communities. Three centuries of documented history. Synagogue destroyed Kristallnacht 1938. Partners: Rolf L. & Rolf S.
Bavaria, Germany
Landsberg
Kaufering sub-camp complex · Community + Writer's Corner
Site of the Kaufering sub-camps of Dachau. Partner historians Alfred & Helga confirmed as Advisors May 27, 2026. Rich documentary record.
Lithuania
Birzai
~2,500 Jewish residents at peak · Archive
97% of the Jewish community destroyed August–September 1941 at Astravo forest. Partner: Michael Bien. Chait family records with live Yad Vashem links.
How Atesolate Works
1
Fragment Enters
A historian, descendant, or partner uploads a document, photograph, name, or record.
2
Pre-Screen
Automated checks: virus scan, OCR, deduplication, plausibility. Staged at Tier 4 — never public yet.
3
Human Curation
A named archivist reviews, assigns a trust tier, and cites every source. AI suggests; the archivist decides.
4
Tessellation
The verified record is connected: to a person, a family, a place, a community, a timeline.
5
Certified Life
The fragment becomes a verified, permanent record — a life restored to the human record.
Why Now
"We are the last generation with direct access to the historians who hold the context for these records — the meaning behind the names. When they go, the knowledge goes with them. The window is not closing; for some communities, it is already closed. For others, it is still open — barely. This platform is built for that open window."
— The Meron Foundation Mission Statement
Communities
Three founding towns — the pilot that sets the global standard
Founding Pilot Towns
Stadtlengsfeld
Thuringia, Germany · Founded Jewish community 1639
Virtual Museum
Partners: Rolf L. & Rolf S.
Stadtlengsfeld's Jewish community is one of the oldest continuous Jewish presences in Thuringia, documented since 1639. For nearly three centuries, Jewish families were woven into the fabric of this small Thuringian town — merchants, craftspeople, community leaders — until their world was destroyed in the twentieth century. The synagogue was burned and demolished during Kristallnacht on November 9–10, 1938. The Atesolate Virtual Museum will be the first permanent, publicly accessible digital home for this community's history.
Pilot Records
T1
Löb Spier Family
Merchant family · Stadtlengsfeld · b. 1780s
Source: Thuringia State Archive · Verified
T1
Stadtlengsfeld Synagogue
Place record · Destroyed Kristallnacht 1938
Source: Local historical register · Verified
T2
Community Register 1847
Document · 43 named individuals
Source: Community records, corroborated
T2
Jewish Life Before 1933
Storyline · Narrative exhibit draft
Co-authored: Rolf L. & Rolf S.
T1
Deportation of 1942
Event record · Documented departure dates
Source: Arolsen Archives transport list
T3
Weinberg Family
Submitted record · Under archivist review
Submitted by descendant · Pending
Landsberg
Bavaria, Germany · Kaufering Sub-Camp Complex
Community + Writer's Corner
Advisors: Alfred & Helga · Confirmed May 27, 2026
Landsberg served as the site of the Kaufering sub-camp complex — eleven sub-camps of Dachau — where thousands of Jewish prisoners were held in brutal conditions. Partner historians Alfred and Helga bring decades of meticulous research to the Atesolate community feature and the platform's Writer's Corner, where survivors' testimonies and historians' narratives will be preserved and shared.
T1
Kaufering I — Prisoner Registry
Document · Partial list, 1944–1945
Source: Arolsen Archives · Verified
T2
Liberation Documentation, April 1945
Event record · 7th Army arrival
Source: US Army records, corroborated
T1
Kaufering Camp Complex Map
Place record · Eleven sub-camp locations
Source: Dachau Memorial Archive · Verified
Birzai
Lithuania · ~2,500 Jewish residents at peak
Archive
Partner: Michael Bien
Birzai's Jewish community, established centuries ago in northern Lithuania, was one of the most vibrant in the region. In August and September 1941, approximately 97% of the community — men, women, and children — were murdered at the Astravo forest. The Chait family records, with live Yad Vashem links, represent the kind of recovered testimony that the Atesolate archive is built to preserve and connect.
T1
T1
Astravo Forest Massacre
Event · August–September 1941
Source: Yad Vashem testimony records
T2
Birzai Jewish Community
Community context · ~2,500 members
Source: Yad Vashem & YIVO
T1
Chait Family — Birzai
Family cluster · Multiple generations
Source: Yad Vashem testimonies · Verified
Families
Verified family clusters — connected to their communities, towns, and each other
Pilot Family Records
The Chait Family
Birzai, Lithuania · Documented 1880s–1941
✦ MERON SEAL OF EMETH
Verified · Senior Archivist · June 2026
The Chait family were among the established Jewish families of Birzai, Lithuania — a community that had flourished in northern Lithuania for centuries. Leib Chait and his family lived through the period of Soviet and then German occupation, before the mass murder of Birzai's Jewish community at the Astravo forest in August and September 1941. Leib Chait's Page of Testimony, preserved at Yad Vashem, is one of the verified anchors of the Atesolate Birzai archive. His record, cross-referenced with community testimonies, links outward to a family, a town, and the wider network of Lithuanian Jewish life that was destroyed within a matter of weeks.
First generation — Birzai
Leib Chait
b. ~1885 · Birzai · d. 1941
Murdered Astravo forest · August–September 1941
Tier 1
Yad Vashem ID 3966851 →
Chana Chait (née Katz)
b. ~1888 · Birzai
Wife of Leib Chait · Birzai community
Tier 2
Second generation
Moshe Chait
b. ~1910 · Birzai
Son of Leib · Birzai community
Tier 2
Rivka Chait
b. ~1912 · Birzai
Daughter of Leib · Emigrated pre-war
Tier 2
Descendants — Johannesburg, Tel Aviv, New York
Third generation +
Family connections documented via testimony and genealogy research. Memory Circle active.
Tier 3
Connected Records
Birzai Community Page
Astravo Forest Event
Yad Vashem Testimony #3966851
Birzai Memory Circle
Chait–Katz Family Connection
The Katz Family
Birzai, Lithuania · Stadtlengsfeld, Germany
The Katz family represents one of the cross-community connections the Atesolate tessellation model makes visible. With documented branches in both Birzai (Lithuania) and Stadtlengsfeld (Germany), the Katz records demonstrate how a single family name can link communities separated by hundreds of miles — and how the platform connects fragmented archives across national borders into a coherent family story.
Documented branches
Katz Family — Birzai Branch
Connected to Chait family via marriage. Lithuanian community records.
Tier 2
Katz Family — Stadtlengsfeld Branch
Thuringian community records. Under archivist review with Rolf L. & Rolf S.
Tier 3
Community Network
Where the archive becomes personal — Memory Circles, contributors, and shared research
Platform Preview
Recent Activity
I have located additional property records for the Spier family dating to 1812. The Thuringia State Archive has confirmed they can be accessed for digitization. This will expand the Stadtlengsfeld pilot dataset by at least 15 verified person records.
Cross-referenced the Chait family testimony with the YIVO Birzai community database. Three additional family members confirmed via two independent sources — these will be upgraded to Tier 2. The Memory Circle for Birzai descendants has its first three members.
Follow-up meeting confirmed. We are ready to provide the first 20 person records for the Kaufering survivor testimony project. We also suggest the Writer's Corner feature as a home for the three unpublished memoirs in our archive. This is exactly the kind of platform we hoped would exist.
I found my great-grandmother's name in the Birzai records — Rivka Chait. I had only a name and a country. Now I have a family, a town, a date, and a Yad Vashem link. I don't have words for what this means. I've requested to join the Birzai Memory Circle.
Writer's Corner — Latest
The Spier Family of Stadtlengsfeld: A Reconstruction
"They came to Stadtlengsfeld in the early seventeenth century, when the town was still finding its footing. By 1700, the Spier name was in the merchant ledgers. By 1800, it was in the civic records. By 1942, it was gone..."
Astravo, 1941: Testimony and Silence
"The forest was ordinary. That is the hardest part — the ordinariness of the place where it happened, standing there in the afternoon light..."
Virtual Museum
Stadtlengsfeld — Jewish life from 1639 to 1938
Co-designed with Rolf L. & Rolf S.
Curatorial Note · Archivist
"What you find here is not a monument. It is a reconstruction — carefully assembled from civil registries, community records, family testimonies, and three centuries of archival research. Every name you read was a person. Every street was a life. The Meron Seal of Emeth on a record means this: the Foundation's archivists have verified the source, named the evidence, and can trace every claim to its origin."
✦ MERON SEAL OF EMETH
Senior Archivist · The Meron FoundationTimeline — Jewish Life in Stadtlengsfeld
~1639
First Jewish Families Documented
The first confirmed Jewish presence in Stadtlengsfeld is documented in the town records. Families engaged in trade and commerce, establishing roots that would last three centuries.
1700s
Community Grows — First Communal Institutions
By the mid-18th century, a stable Jewish community had formed. Merchant families including the Spier, Katz, and Weinberg families are documented in the civic ledgers.
1847
Community Register — 43 Named Individuals
A community register from 1847 documents 43 named individuals — the most complete single-source record of the Stadtlengsfeld Jewish population in the 19th century. Currently held in the Thuringia State Archive. Tier 1 verified.
1880s–1920s
Peak Community Life
The late 19th and early 20th centuries represent the fullest flowering of Jewish life in Stadtlengsfeld. Families are woven into every aspect of town life — commerce, civic society, and local culture.
1933
National Socialist Persecution Begins
The Nazi seizure of power marks the beginning of systematic persecution. Jewish businesses face boycotts. Families begin to emigrate where possible.
9–10 Nov 1938
Kristallnacht — Synagogue Destroyed
The Stadtlengsfeld synagogue is burned and demolished during the coordinated nationwide pogrom. The physical centre of Jewish community life is destroyed in a single night.
1941–1942
Deportations
The remaining Jewish residents of Stadtlengsfeld are deported. Destination records, cross-referenced with Arolsen Archives transport lists, are documented and Tier 1 verified in the Atesolate archive.
2026
The Atesolate Virtual Museum Opens
The first permanent, publicly accessible digital museum of Stadtlengsfeld's Jewish history — built in partnership with Rolf L. and Rolf S., who have dedicated decades to preserving this record.