Rescuers of Jews

     During the war, Adomas and Wanda Kaminskai (Adam Kaminski, born 1864, and Wanda Rozycka-Kaminska, born 1883) lived on the Ustronė farmstead near Bukonys in Jonava district together with their adult sons Kazimieras (born 1908), Antanas (born 1909), Vladislovas (born 1918), Jonas (born 1922), and their youngest son Česlovas (born 1927). The Kaminskis' daughters, Antanina and Janina, were already married and lived separately.
     During the war, the Kaminski family saved Golda Kaplanaitė (later Kaplan), born in 1909 in the village of Galinava, Kėdainiai district.
     From the testimony of Valė Saulienė, daughter of Antanas Kaminskas: We can no longer say exactly when or under what circumstances Golda Kaplan came to my grandparents' farmstead, because no living witnesses remain. All we know is that she remained in hiding there throughout the German occupation. She hid in the hayloft, in a niche beside the stove, and at times had to flee into the forest when danger threatened. Whenever it was safe, Golda helped my grandparents with the farm work. As far as we know, Golda had not started a family before the war, nor did she ever marry afterwards. Golda had a sister who had a son and a daughter.
     After the war, it became known that Golda's sister Berta Laferienė (Kaplan) and Berta's daughter Chana Laferytė had been murdered at the Ninth Fort. Golda's brothers, who had lived in Jonava before the war, also perished during the Holocaust. Of Golda Kaplan's close relatives, only her sister Berta's son Giršas Laferis and the widow of one of Golda's brothers, Sara Kaplan, survived.
     After the war, Golda Kaplan continued to live for many years on the Kaminski family farmstead in Ustronė, near Bukonys. Golda's nephew Giršas Laferis, who during the Soviet period served as General Director of the A. Šiaučiūnaitė Knitwear Manufacturing Association, encouraged Golda to move closer to him in Kaunas. She refused, explaining that she wished to remain in Bukonys, near the people who had saved her.
     From the testimony of Valė Saulienė, daughter of Antanas Kaminskas: After the war, Golda Kaplan continued to live on my grandparents' farmstead for many years. Around 1965–1966, when my father Antanas Kaminskas and his family moved from my mother's family home in Ukmergė district back to his parents' farm in Ustronė, Golda Kaplan settled in Bukonys, in the house standing opposite the church gates (today a private grocery store operates there) <...>.
     Around 1965–1966, I visited her in that house several times and spoke with her. She was short in stature, with a severely stooped back and a pronounced hump. She had grey eyes. Our family affectionately called her Goldunia.
     Golda Kaplan lived in Bukonys until her death in 1987. Through the efforts of Giršas Laferis, both Golda Kaplan and Sara Kaplan – the widow of Golda's brother, whom Golda used to visit in Jonava after the war – were buried in the Aleksotas Jewish Cemetery in Kaunas (H. and O. Minkovskiai Street).
     In 1990, Giršas Laferis emigrated to Israel together with his family – his wife Liuba Laferienė and their daughters Beatrisa Amdurienė and Mira Alterienė (Judeliavičienė).
     Today, Giršas Laferis' daughter Beatrisa Amdurienė, who lives in Israel, and her son Danielius Amduras, who lives in Kaunas, remember visiting their aunt Golda while she was living in Bukonys and listening to her stories about hiding with the Kaminski family.
     While living in Israel, Giršas Laferis (Zvi Girsh Lafer) published a book in Russian and Hebrew in 2010 entitled The Struggle for Life (Борьба за жизнь). He died in Israel in 2018.
     Like many prosperous Lithuanian farming families, the Kaminski family suffered under the Soviet regime after the war, and several members of the family were deported deep into the Soviet Union. The head of the family, Adomas Kaminskas (Adam Kaminski), died in Ustronė in 1946. His wife, Wanda Kaminska, together with their son Vladislovas, was deported on 2 October 1951 to Parabel District in Tomsk Oblast. Following the amnesty, on 8 October 1956, Wanda Kaminska and her son Vladislovas left for Poland, where they settled in the town of Kowary and lived there until their deaths. Although another son, Jonas Kaminskas, who happened to be at home at the time of the deportation, managed to escape, he too was eventually deported. In 1952, he was sent to Tomsk Oblast. After returning to Lithuania in 1958 together with his Lithuanian wife, who had also been deported, and their children, he settled in Jonava. Fearing deportation, the youngest son, Česlovas Kaminskas, moved to Klaipėda in 1949 and later lived with his family in Endriejavas and Rietavas.
     In 2026, Wanda Kaminska, Adomas Kaminskas (Adam Kaminski), and their sons Antanas Kaminskas and Kazimieras Kaminskas were awarded the Life Saving Cross.