Lithuanian saviors honored in book

  • 2000-02-24
  • By Rokas M. Tracevskis
VILNIUS - Vilnius' Gaon Jewish State Museum issued the second volume of an encyclopedia about Lithuanians who saved Jews during Nazi occupation. It is named "Hands Bringing Life and Bread" and 1,000 copies have been issued. More volumes are planned in the future. It will be for sale in Vilnius bookshops in the nextcouple of weeks, said employees of the museum.

The book is bilingual, issued in Lithuanian and English. The material for it is gathered by the employees of the museum and sponsored by the American Center in Lithuania and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York.

The presentation of book was held on Feb. 10. The main speaker was Emanuelis Zingeris, whose list of titles is rather long. He was one of the founders of Lithuania's Jewish community in late 1980s and one of the initiators of establishment of the Jewish museum in Vilnius. Now Zingeris is a Conservative MP, chairman of the parliamentary committee for Human and Citizen's Rights and Ethnic Minorities, and chairman of the international commission called by initiative of President Valdas Adamkus for the estimation of war crimes of Nazi and Soviet occupation regimes.

"The collection of material for this book was pure scientific work. It has nothing to do with state image or things like that. It is serious and time-consuming work," Zingeris said.

The German occupation in 1941 started immediately with the mass murder of Lithuanian Jews. Approximately 180,000 Jews, or 94 percent of all pre-war Jewish population in Lithuania were killed during the Nazi occupation. The Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem honored 422 Lithuanians with medals and "Righteous among the Nations" diplomas for their heroism in saving Jews from deadly persecution. This figure is just a minor part of all Lithuanian righteous gentiles, says Zingeris.

The number of Lithuanians, saviors of Jews, is impressive for a small nation - taking into account that all over the Europe only some 15,000 people are honored with this title.

In Lithuania the search for righteous gentiles was almost impossible during half a century of Soviet occupation. Jewish cultural, scientific and other activity was very limited by Soviet authorities. Most Lithuanian righteous gentiles - Jews' saviors, already died during this half-century.

Active searches for these courageous people become possible only some 10 years ago when Lithuania became a democratic and independent state. Another problem for finding saviors is the Lithuanian mentality.

"People are unwilling to speak about their saint work. They understand saving of Jews as a normal behavior which is not worth even some attention. The employees of the Jewish museum are forced to circle through villages and question people because people are not coming to us and saying, "My parents, my grandparents saved Jews. There is no line in front of Vilnius Jewish museum," Zingeris said.

He emphasized that honor must be paid not only for those who directly themselves saved Jews under occupation of the Third Reich. Relatives and neighbors of saviors also knew about hidden Jews. It was hard during wartime. Feeding and hiding even a single person involved a lot of people usually.

Zingeris called those who saved Jews anti-Nazi resistance members. Laws of the Third Reich were translated from German into Lithuanian and hung on walls in Lithuanian towns. Lithuania was just a geographical term in those times. It was not a fascist satellite state as Hungary, Rumania, Croatia or Slovakia. Lithuania was an occupied land, ruled from Berlin.

Nazi laws hanging on walls spoke about severe punishments for those who hid Jews. Hiding Jews warranted the execution of thesaviors and their families. The Nazi laws were severe and the Nazis claimed that they would remain in Lithuania for centuries, said Zingeris.

On the same Feb. 10 Ronit Ben Dor, charge d'affaires of Israel to the Baltic states, awarded eight Lithuanians with medals and diplomas of the "Righteous Among the Nations." It is the highest honor bestowed by the Jewish people, through the state of Israel, on non-Jews. The ceremony took place at the Jewish Community Center in Vilnius.

Saviors were people of all social backgrounds of Lithuanian society: Catholic priests, peasants, and intellectuals. For example, one of the awarded on Feb. 10 was Kipras Petrauskas, the most famous Lithuanian opera singer. The monument to him stands in front of Opera Theater in Vilnius.

Most of the righteous gentiles are already dead. So, their relatives received certificates of honor.

The ceremony was attended by many local Jewish community members, ambassadors of the countries from where Nazism came 50 years ago (Germany and Austria), Lithuanian Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis. His parents hid Jews from Nazis during the German occupation.

"The second volume of "Hands Bringing Life and Bread" will be for sale at Vilnius University in the bookshop Littera, in the bookshop Akademine Knyga and in our museum," said Viktorija Sakaite, one of authors of this book and employee of the Vilnius Gaon Jewish State Museum.