Rescuers of Jews

       Before the war, Taiba Vainštein lived in Kaunas with her sister Mina. The Vainštein sisters came from Giedraičiai, where all their relatives lived – their father Dovydas Vainštein, mother Chaja, younger sister Fruma, and brothers Mordechai and Aron. Dovydas Vainštein was a tinsmith, while his wife Chaja took care of the family and managed the household.
       When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania, Taiba and Mina Vainštein decided to return to their hometown of Giedraičiai, believing it would be safer there. However, in the very first days of the Nazi occupation, as the persecution of Jews began, the Vainšteins’ 15-year-old son Aron was murdered near Giedraičiai, and soon after they lost their daughter Mina as well. A few weeks later, as the situation worsened and on the eve of the Giedraičiai Jewish massacre, Taiba and her 11-year-old sister Fruma, together with their aunt Basia Kac and her daughter Liba, decided to seek shelter with local farmers. By a miracle, they managed to escape from Giedraičiai; secretly they left the town and began their wanderings through the villages, which lasted many days and months. On the eve of their escape, terrified, the women had no time to take anything from their homes; during the day they hid in the forest, and at night they kept walking until they were completely exhausted and little Fruma could no longer move. One night, when the girls saw the lighted windows of houses in the village of Gaveikiai, they resolved to knock on the doors of strangers. It took great courage, since danger was ever-present – in any house they could encounter a German soldier, a policeman, or someone with antisemitic views. Believing they might never see each other again, Taiba and little Fruma parted with their aunt Basia and her daughter Liba and decided to separate. Taiba and Fruma knocked on the door of the first cottage they came across. And a true miracle happened. The door was opened by Henrikas Raubo, and beside him stood his wife Adolfina. Without hesitation, Adolfina took little Fruma into her arms, and after many days and nights of wandering, the girls were fed for the first time, were able to wash, and, as Fruma later recalled, they could not fall asleep for a long time. At that moment Fruma firmly believed that the hand of God had led them to their rescuers Henrikas and Adolfina Raubo.
       Living together with Adolfina and Henrikas Raubo and their children on their small farm were Henrikas’ father Vladislovas Rauba and his wife Izabelė. All members of this family were very caring and compassionate toward Taiba and Fruma, helping them as much as they could. Still, the girls could not remain with the Raubo family for long, since policemen came several times, searching for escaped Russian soldiers and Jews, and carried out searches. In the village, almost every house bore notices stating that entire families would be shot for hiding Russian soldiers or Jews. It was very hard for Taiba and Fruma to part with the kind-hearted Raubo family, but they had no other choice. Before leaving to continue their search for good people, the Raubos gave them a bag of food, clothes, a bottle of drinking water, and – most importantly – information about people living in the surrounding villages, advising whom they might safely approach for help and whom to avoid. This valuable information saved the Vainštein sisters many times. In the forest they met Basia and her daughter Liba again, but the four did not stay together for long. Patrolling Germans spotted Liba and shot her. From then on, for almost three years, they wandered as a group of three, and had it not been for the kindness of more good people along the way, the Vainštein sisters would not have survived, since hiding places sometimes had to be changed every few days. Yet for longer periods they stayed with Adolfina and Henrikas Raubo, and with Jadvyga and Janas Rinkevičius. They also found temporary shelter with other farmers: Juzefas and Helena Gadlevskis, Aleksandras and Veronika Gulbinovičiai, Juzefas Čaikovski and his wife, Ignacijus and Janina Liutkevičiai, Justinas Masevič and his wife, and Janas Stankevičius and his wife. After the Nazi occupiers retreated from Lithuania, sisters Taiba and Fruma Vainštein and Basia Kac returned to their native Giedraičiai. They learned upon their return that a tragic fate had befallen all remaining members of the Vainštein family – all of the sisters’ relatives who had not escaped were murdered in a nearby forest, except for their brother Mordechai, who had managed to reach the interior of Russia. Mordechai Vainštein fought against Nazi Germany in the ranks of the Red Army.
       After the war, sisters Taiba and Fruma Vainštein and their aunt Basia Kac settled in Vilnius, and their rescuers, who had become like new relatives, helped them overcome post-war hardships by regularly sending food products to Vilnius. The elder sister Taiba worked to ensure that Fruma would obtain a profession. Fruma became a pharmacist. In 1970, Taiba Vainštein, Fruma Vainštein-Aron, and Basia Kac repatriated to Israel.
       The Vainštein sisters never forgot their rescuers; they wrote letters and appealed for their recognition as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Adolfina and Henrikas Raubo, as well as Vladislovas and Izabelė Rauba, were recognized by Yad Vashem in 1983. After Lithuania regained independence, the Raubo’ daughter Marijana Komar visited the Vainštein sisters and their aunt Basia Kac several times in Israel, where she was received with great warmth.
       Adolfina Raubo was awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross already in 1999; in 2025, this award was also bestowed upon other members of her family – Henrikas Raubo, Izabelė Raubo, and Vladislav Rauba.