Rescuers of Jews
Rutkauskas Juozas
Testimony of Ona Šimaitė:
Juozas Rutkauskas, a Lithuanian official, had exceptional energy, resourcefulness and resolution in rescuing the Jews. He arranged Christian documents for many Jews. Mr. Juozas Rutkauskas rescued the lives of more than 100 Jews. He used to organise transfer of the Jews for various works in Germany. These operations were extremely risky, but they helped to save the Jews from death on a mass scale. /.../ Juozas Rutkauskas adopted a small Jewish girl, went to Riga and secretly brought her mother so the child would not be an orphan. It was a reckless stunt and a long game with his life and the lives of his relatives. I believe he was the only Arian to have managed to get inside the heavily controlled Riga Ghetto and take a female Jew away from there. Juozas Rutkauskas brought the mother to her girl and took them both to his home. After the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, ten or even more Jews were constantly hiding at Juozas Rutkauskas’ home. He himself would take care of them. One of the most interesting moments was when his own daughter was taken for forced labour in Germany, and he used her birth certificate to arrange an internal passport for a Jewish girl Žana Ran in the name of Margarita Rutkauskaitė and found her a job as a translator in one of the German occupation offices in Minsk...
Kazys Kęstutis Šimas. “Ona Šimaitė – Pasaulio Tautų Teisuolė”, Vilnius, 2006
Juozas Rutkauskas, a Lithuanian official, had exceptional energy, resourcefulness and resolution in rescuing the Jews. He arranged Christian documents for many Jews. Mr. Juozas Rutkauskas rescued the lives of more than 100 Jews. He used to organise transfer of the Jews for various works in Germany. These operations were extremely risky, but they helped to save the Jews from death on a mass scale. /.../ Juozas Rutkauskas adopted a small Jewish girl, went to Riga and secretly brought her mother so the child would not be an orphan. It was a reckless stunt and a long game with his life and the lives of his relatives. I believe he was the only Arian to have managed to get inside the heavily controlled Riga Ghetto and take a female Jew away from there. Juozas Rutkauskas brought the mother to her girl and took them both to his home. After the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, ten or even more Jews were constantly hiding at Juozas Rutkauskas’ home. He himself would take care of them. One of the most interesting moments was when his own daughter was taken for forced labour in Germany, and he used her birth certificate to arrange an internal passport for a Jewish girl Žana Ran in the name of Margarita Rutkauskaitė and found her a job as a translator in one of the German occupation offices in Minsk...
Kazys Kęstutis Šimas. “Ona Šimaitė – Pasaulio Tautų Teisuolė”, Vilnius, 2006