Rescuers of Jews

     After Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania and the persecution of Jews began, residents of the villages of Dauginiai and Degimai in the Mažeikiai district – Ona and Antanas Čijunskis, Zofija and Aleksas Labanauskas, as well as Ona and Antanas Paulauskas – saved a Jewish minor, Cilė Brojaitė (later Gražulienė).

     Nachum and Bela Brojus and their four daughters – Basia, Cilė, Olia, and Chaja – lived on the outskirts of Telšiai, toward Tryškiai. Nachum, known locally as Naimas, was a potter – he crafted clay pots and sold them at markets in nearby towns. At the end of June 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania, the two older Brojus daughters, Basia and Cilė, were working in the Red Army’s kitchen at the Telšiai airfield, which was undergoing reorganization at the time. When the assault on Telšiai began, the sisters fled the camp and hid until evening. When they returned home, their parents and younger sisters were gone – the family, having not seen the older daughters return, had fled east.
     On June 27–28, 1941, the Jews of Telšiai were rounded up and taken to the Rainiai estate a few kilometers from the city. The Brojus sisters ended up there as well. After the mass murder of Jewish men in mid-July, the Jewish women were relocated to Geruliai. Just before the execution of the women in Geruliai at the end of August 1941, Cilė and Basia were selected and, along with other young women, sent to the Telšiai ghetto – from there, under the order of the commissioner of the Šiauliai district, Jewish women were frequently sent to rural areas to perform agricultural labor.
     At the end of 1941, before the liquidation of the Telšiai ghetto, Cilė managed to escape. She was taken in by peasants Aleksas and Zofija Labanauskas from the village of Dauginiai. This modestly living family shared both their roof and their scarce wartime bread with the girl they sheltered.
     From the testimony of Birutė Navikienė, granddaughter of Zofija and Aleksas Labanauskas: As a child, I overheard my father, Petras Labanauskas, telling how during the war a Jewish girl named Cilė was hidden by their family. She had escaped from a mass execution site and wandered to Aleksas’s homestead. My grandparents took her in, hid her in a special hiding place arranged in the barn, and only allowed her to go out at night to breathe fresh air in the garden.
     After a few weeks, Cilė went to live in the village of Degimai with Zofija Labanauskienė’s sister Ona and her husband Antanas Paulauskas. Staying in one place for too long was dangerous, and when the village elder found out about the hidden girl, efforts were made to find a new hiding place for Cilė. A distant relative of the sisters Ona Paulauskienė and Zofija Labanauskienė (née Čijunskytė), Antanas Čijunskis, lived in Dauginiai. In the fall of 1942, Zofija took Cilė to him.
     Antanas Čijunskis owned a smithy and sold various farming tools and implements to Jewish shops and at the market. At the market, he had often seen Cilė’s father, Nachum Brojus, trading. Antanas lived with his wife, Ona Čijunskienė, and their daughter Zinaida (b. 1934). Since strangers often visited the smithy, a hiding place was built in the house – it was a grain storage box with a crawl space beneath it, where Cilė could crawl in and sleep.
     From the testimony of Zinaida Čijunskytė-Sakalauskienė, published in “Šiaulių naujienos” on June 11, 1994: We loved Cilė. She was a neat and hardworking girl. She always helped my mother in the kitchen. Going outside, especially during the day, was strictly forbidden. I was usually the one outside, keeping an eye on whether anyone was approaching our gate. If I noticed anything suspicious, I would start singing. That’s what my father instructed. I had to sing loudly so that Cilė could hear and have time to hide.
     In 1943, after Ona Čijunskienė died of tuberculosis, Cilė continued to live with the Čijunskis – the idea of her leaving was never even considered. Čijunskis became even more protective of his ward, while Cilė took on even more household and farm chores and helped him raise little Zinaida.
     Cilė remained in hiding with the Čijunskis until the end of the war. In the summer of 1945, Antanas Čijunskis accompanied her to Telšiai when her parents, Nachum and Bela Brojus, returned from Soviet Russia. Cilė later married Perecas Gražulis and moved to Švenčionys. Though the families had lost contact for a time, they later reconnected. Cilė corresponded with the Čijunskis, sent them parcels, and visited them until she emigrated to Israel in the 1970s.

     Cilė Brojaitė’s (Gražulienė’s) rescuers – Ona and Antanas Čijunskis, Zofija and Aleksas Labanauskas, and Ona and Antanas Paulauskas – were awarded the Life Saviour's Cross during a 2025 ceremony.