Rescuers of Jews

       When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania and the persecution of Jews began, sisters Anastasija Dauguvietytė, Elena Dauguvietytė, Darija Dauguvietytė-Hanfman, her husband Andrew Hanfman, and their mother Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė helped save Ija Taubman, doctors Shlomo Nabriskis and Boris Voščin, girls Fruma Vitkinaitė and Margalita Stenderytė, as well as other Jews from the Kaunas Ghetto.
       On October 4, 1941, just before the liquidation of the Kaunas Ghetto’s Small Ghetto, Ija Taubman (later Pozdnjakoff) escaped from the ghetto and knocked on the door of her longtime friend Darija Dauguvietytė-Hanfman and her husband Andrew Hanfman. She planned to stay in the city for a day and return to the ghetto in the evening. However, the Hanfmans refused to let her go back, understanding that returning could mean death. Still, it was too dangerous for Ija to stay with them. The building where the couple rented an apartment housed antisemitic neighbors, and they shared their flat with strangers. At that time, Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė, who was visiting her daughter, offered Ija shelter in her apartment at 14 Kipro Petrausko Street. In that small, modestly furnished apartment lived Olga and her two adult daughters, Anastasija and Elena Dauguvietis. The family lived in poverty, barely making ends meet, but generously shared what little they had with the ghetto escapees. The apartment was on the second floor, with strangers living on the first – a dangerous situation. During the day, while Olga and her daughters were away, Ija tried to move as little as possible so neighbors wouldn’t hear any noise. Whenever strangers visited, Ija would hide in a wall closet above the stored potatoes. Every knock at the door or footstep in the stairwell terrified the whole family. Realizing the great danger she was putting Olga and her daughters in, Ija looked for ways to obtain false documents and hide on her own. Olga and her daughter Anastasija, after consulting with members of the family of Sofija and Kazys Binkis, found a solution – with a forged identity document provided by Sofija Binkienė’s daughter Irena, Ija Taubman left for Vilnius, where no one knew her, at the end of November 1941.
       From Ija Taubman-Pozdnjakoff’s testimony for Yad Vashem, January 10, 1984: At the time I was in hiding, this noble, courageous family was also sheltering two Jewish doctors. One was Monia [Shlomo] Nabriskis, the other — Boris Voščin. <...> Besides me and these two doctors, Jews who had escaped the ghetto in the middle of the night would sometimes knock on the door of this home, seeking a place to stay. None were ever turned away. <...> The simple truth is this: If not for this family – the sisters and their mother – I probably wouldn’t be alive today.
       For a time, in late 1943 and early 1944, Olga’s home sheltered two girls who had been rescued from the Kaunas Ghetto before the Children’s Aktion: Margalita Stenderytė and Fruma Malka Vitkinaitė. Little Margalita, daughter of the murdered Kaunas Opera and Ballet Theater violinist Robertas and radiologist Roza Stenderis, spoke only Yiddish, not Lithuanian or Russian. Hiding the four-year-old, who constantly cried and could not understand where her mother was, was extremely difficult. When the risk became too high, the Satkevičius and Mongirdas families took over hiding Margalita. She survived the war at the home of Olga Mongirdienė in Vilkija. Ten-year-old Fruma Malka Vitkinaitė was saved by many people, including Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė and her daughters Elena and Anastasija Dauguvietytė.
       From Olga Kuzmina’s memoir “One Could Not Live With Eyes Closed,” published in S. Binkienė’s collection “Unarmed Fighters” (1967): I always had a few girls staying with me. One I especially remember was a wonderful, sensitive girl named Fruma Vitkinaitė. Her parents had remained in the ghetto. She worried deeply for them and often cried – but quietly. Her parents were killed, and she was taken in by a very kind woman, Elena Holcmanienė, whose daughter – an active anti-fascist fighter – had been killed. This wonderful girl Fruma, whom we all grew to love, once moved me deeply. After the liberation of Kaunas, she came to me and brought me a flower. Other girls had also lived with me, but for some reason, none stayed in my memory the way she did.
       In 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė, Anastasija Dauguvietytė-Dubrovsky, Elena Dauguvietytė-Kudabienė, Darija Dauguvietytė-Hanfman, and Andrew Hanfman as Righteous Among the Nations. In 2001, Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė was awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross by the Republic of Lithuania. During the 2025 ceremony, other members of Olga Kuzmina-Dauguvietienė’s family – Anastasija Dauguvietytė-Dubrovsky, Elena Dauguvietytė-Kudabienė, Darija Dauguvietytė-Hanfman, and Andrew (Andrey) Hanfman – were also awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross.