Rescuers of Jews

Andraitienė Zosė

ZOSĖ ANDRAITIENĖ
MARIJA BALČIAUSKIENĖ


      For the professor at Kaunas University and renowned pre-war neuropathologist Dr Lazaris Gutmanas, both the Soviet and Nazi occupations were filled with hardships. In 1940, the Soviets nationalized his house in Palanga, and the doctor faced the threat of repression. When World War II began, Lazaris Gutmanas was forced to cease his medical and scientific activities. He was dismissed from Kaunas University, and a few days later, from the First Kaunas City Polyclinic. The lives of Gutman and his family were suddenly in danger.
      Soon, Lazaris Gutmanas, along with his wife Vera Gutmanienė and their two sons, Eduardas and Georgas, were imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto on Puodžių Street. A few months after the liquidation of the small ghetto, first Gutman’s sons, and a few days later his wife Vera, managed to escape. Lazaris Gutmanas fled the ghetto after the Great Aktion on October 28, 1941. Initially, he hid with former patients and, through them, met the legendary rescuer of Jews, Bronius Gotautas, also known as Broliukas (“brother”). Gotautas obtained for Gutman an authentic pre-war passport under the name Jurgis Jankus, only requiring a photo change. Several of Gutman’s former patients, acquaintances, and even strangers in Kaunas helped save the Gutman family. The contribution of these individuals was documented by Lazaris Gutman’s son, Eduardas Gutmanas.
      At first, Bronius Gotautas found a place for Lazaris Gutmanas with Marija Balčiauskienė on Perlojos Street in Panemunė. Some episodes of Gutman’s time at Balčiauskienė’s home are described in Sofija Binkienė’s book "Ir be ginklo kariai" (Vilnius, Mintis, 1967). Dr Sara Finkelbrandienė, who described her own rescue story in the book, also mentions Marija Balčiauskienė: The elderly Balčiauskienė, a tall woman with kind eyes and gray hair, lived on a secluded street in Panemunė. She had a small separate apartment where the well-known neurologist Gutman found refuge for a longer period. I learned about Dr. Gutman when my child fell ill during our first winter in Panemunė. I was afraid to approach an unknown doctor, but the child had a fever and was restless. At that moment, Gotautas visited us. Seeing the sick child and worried mother, he promised to send a doctor. Soon, Dr Gutman arrived. It turned out the child had scarlet fever. The doctor prescribed medication, advised on how to prevent the spread of the illness, and visited a couple of times afterward. We talked, and I found out that Gotautas had provided him with a passport and shelter at Balčiauskienė’s home.
      For a short period, my uncle Vaksas and his wife also stayed at Balčiauskienė’s. My uncle had a distinct Jewish appearance, but Gotautas did not hide this from her. I visited my uncle several times, and Balčiauskienė, undoubtedly, understood that my family was also “non-Aryan.” However, she asked no questions and kept silent until the end of the war.


      After living at Marija Balčiauskienė’s for four months, Gutman had to leave urgently because neighbors began suspecting that her lodger was a Jew. Gotautas then arranged for Gutman to stay with Antanas Andraitis.
      From the testimony of Lazaris Gutman’s son, Eduardas Gutmanas, to the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute: During the Nazi occupation, Antanas Andraitis was a student at the Veterinary Academy and worked as a dispatcher at Maistprekyba. He maintained contacts with Ožinskis, Kaganas, Lopianskis, and Keidanskis. With Andraitis’s help, more food was brought into the ghetto than allowed by the official quotas. From the very beginning, Andraitis knew that his new resident was not Jurgis Jankus but Dr Lazaris Gutmanas. Andraitis took great care of my father. Since many people in Kaunas knew the prominent doctor, Gutman spent most of his time indoors at the Andraitis home. Antanas Andraitis supplied him with food. He did all this selflessly—there was no question of payment. Moreover, thanks to Andraitis, my father could work as a translator. He was fluent in German, translating documents primarily for villagers who needed certificates for German institutions. Andraitis even put up a sign on the door stating, “Translations to German performed here.”
      Antanas Andraitis, his wife Zosė, and their daughter Vincenta (born in 1939) lived at Kęstučio Street 18-9 (in 1943, they had another daughter, Marija, and in 1945, their third daughter, Rūta). Zosė Andraitienė, a well-educated and devoted woman, fully supported her husband’s efforts to save Dr Lazaris Gutmanas. When Gutmanas moved into their apartment, she helped her husband care for him as much as she could. Sometimes, Gutmanas’s sons, Eduardas and Georgas, would visit the Andraitis home. A year later, after an informant tipped off the authorities, the police came to search the Andraitis home for Jews. Fortunately, Andraitis managed to distract the officers long enough for Gutmanas to hide. After this incident, Gutmanas was relocated to the home of Andraitis’s sister, Jadvyga Vaičiulienė, who lived with her husband Juozas Vaičiulis at Donelaičio Street 31-2 in Kaunas. The Andraitis and Vaičiulienė families sheltered Lazaris Gutmanas for over two years, until the summer of 1944.
      Two weeks before the Nazis retreated from Lithuania, fate struck Lazaris Gutmanas another blow – his eldest son, Georgas, was killed. After the war, due to his humanist views, Lazaris Gutmanas fell out of favor with the administration of Kaunas University. There was a delay in granting him the title of professor, and when the anti-Semitic wave began following the infamous “Doctors’ Plot” trial in Moscow, there were attempts to unjustly remove him from his position as Head of the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry. However, Lazaris Gutmanas did not give up and remained true to his ideals until his final working days when a serious illness struck him down. He passed away on February 4, 1957. He was respected and loved by his honest colleagues, students, and former patients.

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