Rescued Jewish Children
Tamara Ben-Amram née Viduchanskaya
The Story of the Viduchansky Family Before, During and After the Nazi Occupation 1941-44, Vilnius
Dedicated with Love to Mother and Nanny
My mother, Elena Lvovna Viduchanskaya, née Israelit, was born in Pskov, Russia on January 30, 1906 to Itsko-Leib Shavelevich Israelit and Sonya (Sheina) Girshovna Israelit, née Grodzinskaya. Itsko-Leib was a watchmaker and owned a watch store on Velikolutskaya Street in Pskov. They had four daughters: Berta, Marusya, Elena (Lena) and Aleksandra (Shura).
Between 1913-1915 the Israelit family moved to Vilno (modern Vilnius).
Berta, the eldest daughter (born 1891), studied in France and graduated as a Doctor of Medicine. Marusya (born 1892) studied in St. Petersburg and became an engineer. Mother and her younger sister Shura (born 1907) finished a secondary school (gymnasium) - I don’t know which one, in Vilnius and went on to study at the Vilnius Stephen Bathory University. Mother completed her Law studies in 1927. Shura studied Chemistry and subsequently became a Doctor of Chemistry (in Soviet terms – Candidate of Science).
From 1932 until September 1939, Mother worked as a lawyer at the Bar Council of Vilnius Appellate district.
On April 23, 1937, Mother married Motel (Mordehaj) Viduchansky who was then 36 years old. He was from Jonishkis, a town in Moletai district in Lithuania. His parents were Ovsej (Yehoshua) Viduchansky and his wife Beila (Berta), née Taitz. In 1931 he had graduated from the University of Grenoble in France as an economist.
When the war broke out, my mother’s sisters were in Leningrad. Berta survived the blockade, Marusya died, Shura was evacuated and survived.
I was born on December 23, 1940. When I was three months old my mother hired a nanny, Anastazja Wojtkiewicz. She was single and a deeply religious Polish woman. She was destined to play a significant role in my life.
World War II brought an abrupt end to my parents’ short marital life. I was six months old when Vilnius was occupied by the Nazis (June 24, 1941). Our family did not leave the city, primarily because my mother’s and father’s parents were old, and also, as my mother said, “it was difficult to imagine that anything like this would happen…”
Mass-murdering of Jews in Vilnius started right at the beginning of the German occupation.
My father Motel (Mordehaj) Viduchansky was shot in Paneriai in July 1941.
On the 6th of September 1941, our family was forced to move to the Vilnius Ghetto, together with all the Jews of the city. Later, my mother’s parents Itsko-Leib and Sheina Israelit were shot in Paneriai. My father’s parents Ovsej and Beila Viduchansky were deported to the concentration camp Klooga in Estonia in August-September 1943, where they perished in 1944.
Regretfully, like many of my generation, I asked very few questions about this time of war and occupation, and therefore I don’t know much. I know that with the help of her colleagues, Polish lawyers, my mother managed to buy counterfeit documents for me and for herself and escaped from the Ghetto. I know that on prearrangement with the nanny, somebody carried me out of the Ghetto and handed me to Nanny. I also know that we, Mother, Nanny and me, lived in the suburbs of Vilnius until the city’s liberation (July 1944). At times, Mother had to hide separately, leaving me with Nanny Anastasia. At other times, we all hid together.
There are a few incidents that I learned about during the years. Once, Mother had nowhere to go for the night and she went to her former colleagues – a Polish couple. She knocked on their door. On seeing her they became scared and refused to take her in for the night. On a different day, in winter, Mother was trudging her way through snowdrifts to see me and ran into a German patrol. They spent a long time checking her documents, staring hard at her, so she felt they became suspicious. At last they commanded: “Go!” As she turned her back and carried on walking she expected them to shoot at any moment, but it didn’t happen.
Only recently I’ve learned that Mother came to Doctor Janina Strużanowska asking for shelter. Most likely, this was arranged with the help of the lawyer Czesław Dabkus. Doctor Strużanowska took Mother in together with me and Nanny. This brave and generous woman found time to care for me amongst her other many courageous endeavours. This is what her son writes in his memoirs: "Dla zabezpieczenia mleka dla córki Pani Wyrkowskiej Mama kupiła kozę." (In order to supply milk for pani Wyrkovsky‘s daughter, Mother bought a goat.) Jadviga Wеrykowskа or Wyrkowskа was my mother’s name in the fake documents; my fake name was Marta.
Tadeusz Lara, Janina’s relative who had escaped from Poland, also lived in the Strużanowska household at the time. Tadeusz built an underground shelter near the house as a hide-out in case of danger. It had an emergency exit in the bushes about 25 metres away from the house. Apart from us, Janina and Tadeusz took in some other Jews.
Janina Strużanowska, Tadeusz Lara and my nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz were fully aware of what would happen if the Germans found Jews in their home. Knowing the danger, they continued to offer help for years and to many. My mother and me are but two of those who survived as result of their compassion and courage.
Tadeusz Lara was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the World Center for Holocaust Research and Commemoration, back in 1989. I hope that one day my nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz and Doctor Janina Strużanowska will also be recognized as Righteous. After the liberation of Vilnius, my mother was accepted as a member of the Bar Association and she worked in the 1st Vilnius Legal Advice Service from September 1944 until March 1959. She was considered one of the best civil law practitioners. She was a fine, intelligent and well educated person. She had a good knowledge of several languages.
Nanny Anastasia lived with us until 1957 or 1958, when she was persuaded by her family in Poland to go back. She packed up and left. She wasn’t quite happy there and after a few years wanted to return to live with us in Vilnius. However, we were no longer there, as we had left Vilnius in the spring of 1959. Being a Polish citizen (until 1939) my mother could use her right for repatriation. In spring 1959, we moved to Warsaw and the year after we immigrated to Israel. The immigration and adaptation to a new country and a new language and further life in Israel were difficult for my mother.
I was then too young to understand what it meant to lose one’s job and give up a successful career. When we came to Israel, Mother was 55 and it was impossible for her to become a lawyer in the new country. She learned Hebrew rather well and for seven years worked as an employee of the Israel Electric Company. She never complained about her new life. Mother died in 1973 after three years of fighting cancer.
In 1964, I graduated from Tel-Aviv University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. I got married the same year. My husband, Chaim Ben-Amram (Lipovetsky), had graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later received a PhD in the History of Medicine from a university in France. He was a very educated person and knew many languages. He worked as a translator, mostly of non-fiction, and was an editor in different publishing houses and was employed by Tel-Aviv University for twenty years.
We raised two children; our son Amir-Mordehaj was born in 1965, and our daughter Gilly was born in 1968. Chaim left us very early, he died from lymph cancer in 1990.
For the most part of my career, I worked as a software developer at the IT Department of the Israeli Meteorological Service, heading the department for a number of years. My work was mostly related to developing meteorological software. I liked my job a lot.
Unlike most of the Jewish population of Vilnius, my mother and I survived the Holocaust. It would not have been possible without the bravery and generosity of my beloved nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz, Doctor Janina Strużanowska, Tadeusz Lara, Lawyer Czesłlaw Dapkus and other people I don’t know about.
Tamara Ben-Amram, née Viduchanskaya
Ramat Gan, Israel. November 2015
Dedicated with Love to Mother and Nanny
My mother, Elena Lvovna Viduchanskaya, née Israelit, was born in Pskov, Russia on January 30, 1906 to Itsko-Leib Shavelevich Israelit and Sonya (Sheina) Girshovna Israelit, née Grodzinskaya. Itsko-Leib was a watchmaker and owned a watch store on Velikolutskaya Street in Pskov. They had four daughters: Berta, Marusya, Elena (Lena) and Aleksandra (Shura).
Between 1913-1915 the Israelit family moved to Vilno (modern Vilnius).
Berta, the eldest daughter (born 1891), studied in France and graduated as a Doctor of Medicine. Marusya (born 1892) studied in St. Petersburg and became an engineer. Mother and her younger sister Shura (born 1907) finished a secondary school (gymnasium) - I don’t know which one, in Vilnius and went on to study at the Vilnius Stephen Bathory University. Mother completed her Law studies in 1927. Shura studied Chemistry and subsequently became a Doctor of Chemistry (in Soviet terms – Candidate of Science).
From 1932 until September 1939, Mother worked as a lawyer at the Bar Council of Vilnius Appellate district.
On April 23, 1937, Mother married Motel (Mordehaj) Viduchansky who was then 36 years old. He was from Jonishkis, a town in Moletai district in Lithuania. His parents were Ovsej (Yehoshua) Viduchansky and his wife Beila (Berta), née Taitz. In 1931 he had graduated from the University of Grenoble in France as an economist.
When the war broke out, my mother’s sisters were in Leningrad. Berta survived the blockade, Marusya died, Shura was evacuated and survived.
I was born on December 23, 1940. When I was three months old my mother hired a nanny, Anastazja Wojtkiewicz. She was single and a deeply religious Polish woman. She was destined to play a significant role in my life.
World War II brought an abrupt end to my parents’ short marital life. I was six months old when Vilnius was occupied by the Nazis (June 24, 1941). Our family did not leave the city, primarily because my mother’s and father’s parents were old, and also, as my mother said, “it was difficult to imagine that anything like this would happen…”
Mass-murdering of Jews in Vilnius started right at the beginning of the German occupation.
My father Motel (Mordehaj) Viduchansky was shot in Paneriai in July 1941.
On the 6th of September 1941, our family was forced to move to the Vilnius Ghetto, together with all the Jews of the city. Later, my mother’s parents Itsko-Leib and Sheina Israelit were shot in Paneriai. My father’s parents Ovsej and Beila Viduchansky were deported to the concentration camp Klooga in Estonia in August-September 1943, where they perished in 1944.
Regretfully, like many of my generation, I asked very few questions about this time of war and occupation, and therefore I don’t know much. I know that with the help of her colleagues, Polish lawyers, my mother managed to buy counterfeit documents for me and for herself and escaped from the Ghetto. I know that on prearrangement with the nanny, somebody carried me out of the Ghetto and handed me to Nanny. I also know that we, Mother, Nanny and me, lived in the suburbs of Vilnius until the city’s liberation (July 1944). At times, Mother had to hide separately, leaving me with Nanny Anastasia. At other times, we all hid together.
There are a few incidents that I learned about during the years. Once, Mother had nowhere to go for the night and she went to her former colleagues – a Polish couple. She knocked on their door. On seeing her they became scared and refused to take her in for the night. On a different day, in winter, Mother was trudging her way through snowdrifts to see me and ran into a German patrol. They spent a long time checking her documents, staring hard at her, so she felt they became suspicious. At last they commanded: “Go!” As she turned her back and carried on walking she expected them to shoot at any moment, but it didn’t happen.
Only recently I’ve learned that Mother came to Doctor Janina Strużanowska asking for shelter. Most likely, this was arranged with the help of the lawyer Czesław Dabkus. Doctor Strużanowska took Mother in together with me and Nanny. This brave and generous woman found time to care for me amongst her other many courageous endeavours. This is what her son writes in his memoirs: "Dla zabezpieczenia mleka dla córki Pani Wyrkowskiej Mama kupiła kozę." (In order to supply milk for pani Wyrkovsky‘s daughter, Mother bought a goat.) Jadviga Wеrykowskа or Wyrkowskа was my mother’s name in the fake documents; my fake name was Marta.
Tadeusz Lara, Janina’s relative who had escaped from Poland, also lived in the Strużanowska household at the time. Tadeusz built an underground shelter near the house as a hide-out in case of danger. It had an emergency exit in the bushes about 25 metres away from the house. Apart from us, Janina and Tadeusz took in some other Jews.
Janina Strużanowska, Tadeusz Lara and my nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz were fully aware of what would happen if the Germans found Jews in their home. Knowing the danger, they continued to offer help for years and to many. My mother and me are but two of those who survived as result of their compassion and courage.
Tadeusz Lara was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the World Center for Holocaust Research and Commemoration, back in 1989. I hope that one day my nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz and Doctor Janina Strużanowska will also be recognized as Righteous. After the liberation of Vilnius, my mother was accepted as a member of the Bar Association and she worked in the 1st Vilnius Legal Advice Service from September 1944 until March 1959. She was considered one of the best civil law practitioners. She was a fine, intelligent and well educated person. She had a good knowledge of several languages.
Nanny Anastasia lived with us until 1957 or 1958, when she was persuaded by her family in Poland to go back. She packed up and left. She wasn’t quite happy there and after a few years wanted to return to live with us in Vilnius. However, we were no longer there, as we had left Vilnius in the spring of 1959. Being a Polish citizen (until 1939) my mother could use her right for repatriation. In spring 1959, we moved to Warsaw and the year after we immigrated to Israel. The immigration and adaptation to a new country and a new language and further life in Israel were difficult for my mother.
I was then too young to understand what it meant to lose one’s job and give up a successful career. When we came to Israel, Mother was 55 and it was impossible for her to become a lawyer in the new country. She learned Hebrew rather well and for seven years worked as an employee of the Israel Electric Company. She never complained about her new life. Mother died in 1973 after three years of fighting cancer.
In 1964, I graduated from Tel-Aviv University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. I got married the same year. My husband, Chaim Ben-Amram (Lipovetsky), had graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later received a PhD in the History of Medicine from a university in France. He was a very educated person and knew many languages. He worked as a translator, mostly of non-fiction, and was an editor in different publishing houses and was employed by Tel-Aviv University for twenty years.
We raised two children; our son Amir-Mordehaj was born in 1965, and our daughter Gilly was born in 1968. Chaim left us very early, he died from lymph cancer in 1990.
For the most part of my career, I worked as a software developer at the IT Department of the Israeli Meteorological Service, heading the department for a number of years. My work was mostly related to developing meteorological software. I liked my job a lot.
Unlike most of the Jewish population of Vilnius, my mother and I survived the Holocaust. It would not have been possible without the bravery and generosity of my beloved nanny Anastazja Wojtkiewicz, Doctor Janina Strużanowska, Tadeusz Lara, Lawyer Czesłlaw Dapkus and other people I don’t know about.
Tamara Ben-Amram, née Viduchanskaya
Ramat Gan, Israel. November 2015