Rescuers of Jews
Ruzgienė Stanislava
TO RETURN THE FAITH IN MAN
Told by a mother
When the Nazi band entered Vilnius, my husband together with the other innocent people disappeared on the first day. The Germans caught him and took him away – he never came back to us. His footsteps were lost forever in a dreadful night that surrounded us.
I was left alone with a 2 years old daughter on my hands – lonely, helpless, without any friends or relatives, with no desire to live.
In this awful hour two Lithuanians – Jonas and Stasė Ruzgys came to comfort and sympathise with us. They gave me a hand and restored my desire to live. To live meant saving my baby girl. For me they were the incarnation of courage and heroism. I thought they could overcome the horror of Nazism, but sometimes – I will not hide it – I thought they were naive people, who did not understand, that Jews were doomed and no one could save them from this animal.
The Ruzgys came to say goodbye before Vilnius Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto. I will never forget how bitterly they wept for us, how sorry they were for my missing husband and how they uselessly tried to find him in the Gestapo prisons.
My daughter and I were locked up in Lukiškės prison instead of the ghetto. The next stop from there was Paneriai. We spent many days and nights, suffering cold and hunger in the prison, until one day we miraculously managed to escape. But where? The only place was the ghetto where all Jews were kept.
Jonas Ruzgys courageously, which so characteristic of him, suddenly came to the ghetto gate. He came like he said “to return the faith in man”. These words etched into my memory forever.
From that moment on, the fight for my 2 years old daughter Rūtelė started. Jonas and Stasė had to find her a place outside the ghetto. With doctor Grabovicka’s help, they succeeded to get my daughter to the eye clinic. To do that, they had to lie that my girl was a Karaite. Otherwise, Jewish child could not be saved.
I remember how we crawled under some bombed building ruins, how we made our way through an empty warehouse, where a few Polish people were working; but they did not prevent me from leading my daughter to the street. Stasė was waiting for us there.
It only seemed to us, that we can save the child in the hospital. They were suspicious about my girl. We were afraid that German spies, who where coming to the hospital, would find the traces of Jewish child. I asked the Jakubovskis farmers I knew to take care of my girl temporarily and they agreed.
Then the partial liquidation of the ghetto started. Furthermore, the commandant of the ghetto found out that Jonas Ruzgys has come for my daughter’s things and clothes. The commandant had me in and strictly warned me:
“Tell Ruzgys, that he won’t be able to take any more things. The assets of the Jews belong only to Germans.”
Since then my life was in danger all the time and the Ruzgys became my saviours too as they had saved my daughter before. I remember how we met in some kind of a pharmacy, where I had to change my clothes. We went all the way from there to Žvėrynas neighbourhood by foot, until we reached my hiding place. What a surprising joy it was to see my sleeping daughter after such a long time. My girl couldn’t know that I was hiding in the same apartment.
We stayed there for two and a half years. Weeks and months passed as slowly as years. Each night or day without any unexpected incidents was the biggest event.
We lived in a small closet. It could only be accessed trough a wardrobe. We would lie without moving, breathing silently. My Rūtelė learned to lie with her head under the blanket, not to sigh, to cry silently and swallow her tears. My little girl kept asking why other children were free to run about in the streets or why they went to school while she had to hide like a mouse. But there was no answer, at least no proper answer for her age. We worried so much during those times. Jonas and Stasė had to buy food for us in a marketplace. They sold some of our things.
One cold winter night, we had to leave the Ruzgys house. We headed for the other side of the city, where the relatives of Voiciskis lived – they had promised to hide my daughter for money. That is where we got caught. We had a lot of trouble with a Polish woman who took my girl and did not want to give her back later. She demanded a big amount of money threatening me that if I didn’t give it to her, she would tell the Gestapo about us. And there were lots of trials like this.
The ghetto was already liquidated and the Jews exterminated. Everyone thought I was Polish due to my looks and the accent. After much effort I finally managed to get “Aryan” documents for me and my girl. Then my desperation turned into a great desire of revenge. Jonas’ friend used to bring me notes and I used to type them for partisans, using Russian typing machine, and I did it with such pleasure and pride. “Soon, very soon, the liberation hour will come!” I was thinking with shivering and hope. And it was such a joy when Hitler’s beasts started to retreat and their horrible reign finally ended.
Liza Aizenberg
From “Unarmed Fighters”. By S. Binkienė
Vilnius, Mintis, Vilnius, 1967
Told by a mother
When the Nazi band entered Vilnius, my husband together with the other innocent people disappeared on the first day. The Germans caught him and took him away – he never came back to us. His footsteps were lost forever in a dreadful night that surrounded us.
I was left alone with a 2 years old daughter on my hands – lonely, helpless, without any friends or relatives, with no desire to live.
In this awful hour two Lithuanians – Jonas and Stasė Ruzgys came to comfort and sympathise with us. They gave me a hand and restored my desire to live. To live meant saving my baby girl. For me they were the incarnation of courage and heroism. I thought they could overcome the horror of Nazism, but sometimes – I will not hide it – I thought they were naive people, who did not understand, that Jews were doomed and no one could save them from this animal.
The Ruzgys came to say goodbye before Vilnius Jews were imprisoned in the ghetto. I will never forget how bitterly they wept for us, how sorry they were for my missing husband and how they uselessly tried to find him in the Gestapo prisons.
My daughter and I were locked up in Lukiškės prison instead of the ghetto. The next stop from there was Paneriai. We spent many days and nights, suffering cold and hunger in the prison, until one day we miraculously managed to escape. But where? The only place was the ghetto where all Jews were kept.
Jonas Ruzgys courageously, which so characteristic of him, suddenly came to the ghetto gate. He came like he said “to return the faith in man”. These words etched into my memory forever.
From that moment on, the fight for my 2 years old daughter Rūtelė started. Jonas and Stasė had to find her a place outside the ghetto. With doctor Grabovicka’s help, they succeeded to get my daughter to the eye clinic. To do that, they had to lie that my girl was a Karaite. Otherwise, Jewish child could not be saved.
I remember how we crawled under some bombed building ruins, how we made our way through an empty warehouse, where a few Polish people were working; but they did not prevent me from leading my daughter to the street. Stasė was waiting for us there.
It only seemed to us, that we can save the child in the hospital. They were suspicious about my girl. We were afraid that German spies, who where coming to the hospital, would find the traces of Jewish child. I asked the Jakubovskis farmers I knew to take care of my girl temporarily and they agreed.
Then the partial liquidation of the ghetto started. Furthermore, the commandant of the ghetto found out that Jonas Ruzgys has come for my daughter’s things and clothes. The commandant had me in and strictly warned me:
“Tell Ruzgys, that he won’t be able to take any more things. The assets of the Jews belong only to Germans.”
Since then my life was in danger all the time and the Ruzgys became my saviours too as they had saved my daughter before. I remember how we met in some kind of a pharmacy, where I had to change my clothes. We went all the way from there to Žvėrynas neighbourhood by foot, until we reached my hiding place. What a surprising joy it was to see my sleeping daughter after such a long time. My girl couldn’t know that I was hiding in the same apartment.
We stayed there for two and a half years. Weeks and months passed as slowly as years. Each night or day without any unexpected incidents was the biggest event.
We lived in a small closet. It could only be accessed trough a wardrobe. We would lie without moving, breathing silently. My Rūtelė learned to lie with her head under the blanket, not to sigh, to cry silently and swallow her tears. My little girl kept asking why other children were free to run about in the streets or why they went to school while she had to hide like a mouse. But there was no answer, at least no proper answer for her age. We worried so much during those times. Jonas and Stasė had to buy food for us in a marketplace. They sold some of our things.
One cold winter night, we had to leave the Ruzgys house. We headed for the other side of the city, where the relatives of Voiciskis lived – they had promised to hide my daughter for money. That is where we got caught. We had a lot of trouble with a Polish woman who took my girl and did not want to give her back later. She demanded a big amount of money threatening me that if I didn’t give it to her, she would tell the Gestapo about us. And there were lots of trials like this.
The ghetto was already liquidated and the Jews exterminated. Everyone thought I was Polish due to my looks and the accent. After much effort I finally managed to get “Aryan” documents for me and my girl. Then my desperation turned into a great desire of revenge. Jonas’ friend used to bring me notes and I used to type them for partisans, using Russian typing machine, and I did it with such pleasure and pride. “Soon, very soon, the liberation hour will come!” I was thinking with shivering and hope. And it was such a joy when Hitler’s beasts started to retreat and their horrible reign finally ended.
Liza Aizenberg
From “Unarmed Fighters”. By S. Binkienė
Vilnius, Mintis, Vilnius, 1967