Rescued Jewish Children
Liuba Funkaitė-Chessakov
My father Aronas Funkas was born in Palanga in 1910, my mother Šeina Šifrisaitė was born in Tryškiai in 1914. They got married in 1937 in Šiauliai synagogue and settled in Klaipėda. When Germans invaded Klaipėda, they returned to Šiauliai. I was born 6 November 1938 in Šiauliai.
In September 1941, all Jews of Šiauliai, including me and my parents, were forced to move to the ghetto. In the ghetto, we lived in a crowded room on Žilvičių Street.
My mother had a feeling that the life in the ghetto would not end well and deleted me from the list of the ghetto prisoners under the intention to move with me from the Šiauliai Ghetto to the Daugėliai Ghetto. She managed to accomplish this in 1943. My mother wrapped me in a big coat and asked me not to cry. Residents of the ghetto surrounded us concealing me from the Germans. I was lucky to have been transported to Daugėliai Ghetto only because it was raining that day and the vehicles of German soldiers and officers got stuck in the mud and could not arrive on time. My mother started teaching me Lithuanian, because I spoke only Jewish. She would take me with her to the Sirotavičius family apartment where she was working as a handmaid. Bronė Grigalaitienė with her husband Pranas were also employed there. Bronė agreed to take me in, raise me as her own child and return me only to my parents had they returned. If not, I would be her child.
5 November 1943, the Action of Children and the Elderly was carried out in the Šiauliai Ghetto. Children were taken away from their parents. In the midst of the turmoil, my father managed to tell Grigalaitis, that he had hidden me in a sewer manhole. All children and elderly people were taken away. Pranas Grigalaitis found several sewer manholes covered with lids. He knocked on them, but there was no answer, so he started opening them all one by one. He found me in one of the manholes, took me home and washed me because I was all dirty.
Mr. Sirotavičius came to my mother and said: “My God, they took your child.”
My mother started weeping and crying. He told her to stay at home, but she did not listen. She ran out of the house and met her sister, who told her to calm down and said that my father had hidden me. My mother calmed down only when she could not see me among the children and the elderly.
I did not return to the camp. I saw my parents several times after that.
In July 1944, all inmates of the Daugėliai camp were taken to Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
I grew in the Grigalaitis family with two brothers – Pranas and Vytas – and their sister Birutė. My name was Aldutė. I was taken care of by other family members too, especially by my father Pranas’ sisters Onutė, Bronelė and Zosė. Bronelė was a young girl and she would help my mother Bronė to raise the kids. I grew among my brothers Pranukas and Vytukas, and my sister Birutė. I was the oldest of them. We would pray, eat and play together and I did not feel any difference.
After the war, my real parents returned from Dachau. I did not recognise them and did not want to go with them. They stayed in the village for a week and only then we left for Kaunas. Every summer we would go the village and later to Kuršėnai to visit the Grigalaitis, so I could stay with my second family at least for a while.
In 1957 my parents decided to move to Israel. I married a man who had right to move to Poland. We left in 1959. It was not easy to part with my second family.
In 1960 my son Šlioma was born and a month after his birth we left Poland for Israel.
Those were hard times, and my dearest connection with Lithuania was severed.
My daughter Gita and my son Zohar were born in Israel. Time passed. My husband is a ss player, so we would often go to chess competitions. In 1989 we went to Romania. I would always carry the addresses of my beloved Grigalaitis with me. I was always attempting to write them from other countries hoping that the letters would finally reach them. This time, I had the addresses too. I heard someone speaking Lithuanian and asked if there was anybody from Kaunas. A woman came to my room later and I asked her to find my second family – the Grigalaitis. I gave her my phone number. A few weeks later our communication was restored! In October 1989, thirty years after I had left Lithuania, I returned to my homeland. Reunion with my mother Bronė, my brothers and my sister was very touching. So many years had passed...
My cousins Leonora and Frida and my best friend Violeta were also there to see me. November 6, I celebrated my birthday with my family and my friends whom I had not seen for thirty years.
When I came back, I addressed Yad Vashem asking them to acknowledge my second parents Bronė and Pranas Grigalaitis the Righteous Among the Nations.
In 1991 I received a letter from the Yad Vashem memorial museum offering to gather a group of the Righteous from Lithuania and bring them to Israel. This was the idea of the patron Harvey Sarner from the USA. He had already organised a number of journeys of the Righteous from 12 countries, but not from Lithuania. From the Yad Vashem memorial we obtained the names of the Lithuanian Righteous and made a list. The then Speaker of Israeli Knesset, Dov Shilansky, helped me to arrange a meeting with Mr. Harvey Sarner. Dov Shilansky knew me from childhood, because he had survived Dachau concentration camp with my parents.
I came to Lithuania and with the help of my cousin Leonora Vasiliauskienė started organising the journey of the Righteous to Israel. After I left, Leonora took over this job. Later, Leonora Vasiliauskienė and filmmaker Lilija Kopač created a film Tree of Life (Gyvybės medis) about the Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations.
Thus, 25 Righteous from Lithuania came to Israel in 1991, including my second mother Bronė Grigalaitienė, my brothers Pranas and Vytas, and my sister Birutė Grigalaitytė-Brazienė. This was my mother’s first and last visit to Israel. Later, my brothers and my sister came to visit me several more times and I go to Lithuania each year. My children and my grandson have also seen Lithuania. The children of my brothers and my sister Birutė have visited me in Israel too. The bond between us is very strong. After all, it has been written in the Talmud: “He who saves a single life, saves the entire world”.
Thanks to Bronė and Pranas Grigalaitis, my second parents, I have a family, three children and seven grandchildren.
In September 1941, all Jews of Šiauliai, including me and my parents, were forced to move to the ghetto. In the ghetto, we lived in a crowded room on Žilvičių Street.
My mother had a feeling that the life in the ghetto would not end well and deleted me from the list of the ghetto prisoners under the intention to move with me from the Šiauliai Ghetto to the Daugėliai Ghetto. She managed to accomplish this in 1943. My mother wrapped me in a big coat and asked me not to cry. Residents of the ghetto surrounded us concealing me from the Germans. I was lucky to have been transported to Daugėliai Ghetto only because it was raining that day and the vehicles of German soldiers and officers got stuck in the mud and could not arrive on time. My mother started teaching me Lithuanian, because I spoke only Jewish. She would take me with her to the Sirotavičius family apartment where she was working as a handmaid. Bronė Grigalaitienė with her husband Pranas were also employed there. Bronė agreed to take me in, raise me as her own child and return me only to my parents had they returned. If not, I would be her child.
5 November 1943, the Action of Children and the Elderly was carried out in the Šiauliai Ghetto. Children were taken away from their parents. In the midst of the turmoil, my father managed to tell Grigalaitis, that he had hidden me in a sewer manhole. All children and elderly people were taken away. Pranas Grigalaitis found several sewer manholes covered with lids. He knocked on them, but there was no answer, so he started opening them all one by one. He found me in one of the manholes, took me home and washed me because I was all dirty.
Mr. Sirotavičius came to my mother and said: “My God, they took your child.”
My mother started weeping and crying. He told her to stay at home, but she did not listen. She ran out of the house and met her sister, who told her to calm down and said that my father had hidden me. My mother calmed down only when she could not see me among the children and the elderly.
I did not return to the camp. I saw my parents several times after that.
In July 1944, all inmates of the Daugėliai camp were taken to Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
I grew in the Grigalaitis family with two brothers – Pranas and Vytas – and their sister Birutė. My name was Aldutė. I was taken care of by other family members too, especially by my father Pranas’ sisters Onutė, Bronelė and Zosė. Bronelė was a young girl and she would help my mother Bronė to raise the kids. I grew among my brothers Pranukas and Vytukas, and my sister Birutė. I was the oldest of them. We would pray, eat and play together and I did not feel any difference.
After the war, my real parents returned from Dachau. I did not recognise them and did not want to go with them. They stayed in the village for a week and only then we left for Kaunas. Every summer we would go the village and later to Kuršėnai to visit the Grigalaitis, so I could stay with my second family at least for a while.
In 1957 my parents decided to move to Israel. I married a man who had right to move to Poland. We left in 1959. It was not easy to part with my second family.
In 1960 my son Šlioma was born and a month after his birth we left Poland for Israel.
Those were hard times, and my dearest connection with Lithuania was severed.
My daughter Gita and my son Zohar were born in Israel. Time passed. My husband is a ss player, so we would often go to chess competitions. In 1989 we went to Romania. I would always carry the addresses of my beloved Grigalaitis with me. I was always attempting to write them from other countries hoping that the letters would finally reach them. This time, I had the addresses too. I heard someone speaking Lithuanian and asked if there was anybody from Kaunas. A woman came to my room later and I asked her to find my second family – the Grigalaitis. I gave her my phone number. A few weeks later our communication was restored! In October 1989, thirty years after I had left Lithuania, I returned to my homeland. Reunion with my mother Bronė, my brothers and my sister was very touching. So many years had passed...
My cousins Leonora and Frida and my best friend Violeta were also there to see me. November 6, I celebrated my birthday with my family and my friends whom I had not seen for thirty years.
When I came back, I addressed Yad Vashem asking them to acknowledge my second parents Bronė and Pranas Grigalaitis the Righteous Among the Nations.
In 1991 I received a letter from the Yad Vashem memorial museum offering to gather a group of the Righteous from Lithuania and bring them to Israel. This was the idea of the patron Harvey Sarner from the USA. He had already organised a number of journeys of the Righteous from 12 countries, but not from Lithuania. From the Yad Vashem memorial we obtained the names of the Lithuanian Righteous and made a list. The then Speaker of Israeli Knesset, Dov Shilansky, helped me to arrange a meeting with Mr. Harvey Sarner. Dov Shilansky knew me from childhood, because he had survived Dachau concentration camp with my parents.
I came to Lithuania and with the help of my cousin Leonora Vasiliauskienė started organising the journey of the Righteous to Israel. After I left, Leonora took over this job. Later, Leonora Vasiliauskienė and filmmaker Lilija Kopač created a film Tree of Life (Gyvybės medis) about the Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations.
Thus, 25 Righteous from Lithuania came to Israel in 1991, including my second mother Bronė Grigalaitienė, my brothers Pranas and Vytas, and my sister Birutė Grigalaitytė-Brazienė. This was my mother’s first and last visit to Israel. Later, my brothers and my sister came to visit me several more times and I go to Lithuania each year. My children and my grandson have also seen Lithuania. The children of my brothers and my sister Birutė have visited me in Israel too. The bond between us is very strong. After all, it has been written in the Talmud: “He who saves a single life, saves the entire world”.
Thanks to Bronė and Pranas Grigalaitis, my second parents, I have a family, three children and seven grandchildren.