Rescuers of Jews

     Chone and Rachelė Dulickis of Šiauliai had a daughter, Lėja, in 1914. After reaching adulthood, Lėja Dulickaitė settled in Radviliškis, where she trained as a seamstress. There she met her future husband, Jurgis Šeštokas. In 1938, the couple moved to Kaunas, married, and in June 1939 their son Anatolijus was born.
     When the war began, Lėja and Jurgis attempted to flee from Radviliškis with their infant son, but they were overtaken by the Wehrmacht in Daugavpils. Suspecting that Jurgis Šeštokas was Jewish, the Germans arrested him. Lėja managed to escape from Daugavpils with the baby and returned to Radviliškis in search of a hiding place for herself and her child. Jurgis' mother, Barbora Šeštokienė, and the family of his sister Eugenija Pekarskienė lived in Radviliškis. Lėja and little Anatolijus found refuge with Eugenija and Viktoras Pekarskis. Their daughter Neonila (later Pakalniškienė) obtained identity documents in which Anatolijus was registered as her illegitimate son, and she undertook to care for and protect the boy. Around that time, Lėja learned that her husband had been released from detention in Daugavpils and was waiting for her in Kaunas. Leaving her two-year-old son in Neonila Pekarskytė's care, she returned to Kaunas. She found her apartment empty and looted. After spending one night there, she was denounced, arrested, and imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto; her husband was also arrested. Three months later, on 25 October 1941, Lėja Šeštokienė escaped from the Kaunas Ghetto, walked back to Radviliškis, and once again found refuge with Eugenija and Viktoras Pekarskis. Later, her husband Jurgis also arrived from Kaunas. However, it was too dangerous for them to live together, as the police regularly checked whether he was living with his Jewish wife. Jurgis therefore stayed with his mother, Barbora Šeštokienė, while Lėja remained in hiding in the home of Eugenija and Viktoras Pekarskis.
     From the memoirs of Neonila Pekarskytė-Pakalniškienė: In a small town like pre-war Radviliškis, neighbours knew almost everything about one another. It was extremely difficult to hide a person. At that time, anyone caught sheltering Jews faced the death penalty, and neighbours held all kinds of views and beliefs – many were hostile towards Jews. Throughout the German occupation, because of neighbours' suspicions, Šeštokienė had to change her hiding place four times.
     When one of the Pekarskis family's untrustworthy neighbours noticed that an unfamiliar woman was living in their home, Lėja was forced to leave the Pekarskis house in the middle of the night and flee to the home of her mother-in-law, Barbora Šeštokienė. She remained there for about a month, but this too was highly dangerous, as the neighbours knew that Jurgis Šeštokas' wife was Jewish, and even an accidental remark could have betrayed her. Eventually, Viktoras Pekarskis found a trustworthy woman in Šeduva – Stasė Strolienė (during the war, Padgurskienė). She agreed to take Lėja in.
     From the memoirs of Laima Junčienė-Strolytė, daughter of Stasė Strolienė: My mother, Stanislava Strolienė (née Šereivaitė-Padgurskienė), was born on 18 May 1914 in the village of Naujasodis, Šeduva rural district, into the farming family of Juozas and Salomėja Šereiva. She was the eldest child. In later years, four brothers – Bronius, Juozas, Vytautas, and Justinas – and three sisters – Emilija, Teodora, and Salomėja – were born into the family. As the eldest child, and because there was endless work on the farm as well as younger siblings to care for, my mother was only able to complete four years of primary school. As a young woman, she attended agricultural courses in Šeduva, which she completed with distinction.<...>
     After marrying Padgurskis, Stasė left her parents' home and moved to Šeduva.
     I knew from family stories that Šeštokienė had been hidden in our home in Šeduva. When the Germans occupied Lithuania in 1941, nowhere was safe, and even the slightest suspicion from neighbours could become a death sentence. At that time, Padgurskis was not at home, as he had been taken prisoner by the Germans. My mother realized that the neighbours were beginning to watch the house and ask questions about the woman staying there. One night, her brother Bronius Šereiva hurriedly took Šeštokienė to Naujasodis, to the home of his and Stasė's parents. At that time, both parents, four brothers, and three sisters were living there. The Šereiva family did not live on an isolated farmstead but in a village where neighbours lived close by. Although it was also dangerous for Šeštokienė to remain there for long, after some time it became necessary to find an even safer hiding place.
     According to Lėja Šeštokienė herself, she remained in hiding with the Šereiva family in the village of Naujasodis for ten months. From there, she was taken to the village of Bebrujėliai, where the farmer Vilius Dangis hid and cared for her until the end of the war.
     After the Germans retreated, everyone could finally breathe more freely. Lėja and her husband settled once again in Radviliškis. Lėja's parents, Chone and Rachelė Dulickis, were deported to concentration camps during the liquidation of the Šiauliai Ghetto in July 1944, where they perished. Three of Lėja's brothers, who had lived in Vilnius and Panevėžys before the war, were also murdered during the Holocaust in Lithuania. One brother, Naftalis Dulickis, managed to escape into the Soviet interior. He fought in the war, was seriously wounded, but survived, and after the war also settled in Radviliškis.
     The Šereiva family faced many new hardships after the war. From the memoirs of Laima Junčienė-Strolytė, daughter of Stasė Strolienė: When the deportations began in 1948, the Šereiva children went into hiding, while my grandfather Juozas had already died. Finding only my grandmother Salomėja at home, the Soviet authorities deported her to Krasnoyarsk Krai, where she spent eight years. My aunt Teodora, who had served as a liaison for the partisans, was arrested in 1947 and imprisoned for five years in a labour camp in Mordovia. My youngest uncle, Justinas, was arrested by the NKVD and was never seen again. Only many years later did we learn from archival records that he had died in prison; his burial place remains unknown. The NKVD repeatedly interrogated my mother about her brothers. Warned by kind people that her name had been placed on the deportation lists, my mother fled Šeduva. After moving from place to place, she settled in Radviliškis, where she met Lėja Šeštokienė again. I remember that we often visited their home.
     After my mother's marriage to Padgurskis ended, she was left alone with my brother Virgaudas Padgurskis (born in 1942). In Radviliškis she married my father, Jonas Strolis. I was born there in 1948, and we lived in Radviliškis until 1960. After I married and settled in Šiauliai, we often invited my mother to stay with us. She always asked us to take her to visit Lėja, who by then lived on Gardino Street in Šiauliai. Their visits would last several days, and they would talk late into the night. They remained close friends throughout their lives. My mother died in our home in Šiauliai on 19 July 1990.
     My mother's brother, Bronius Šereiva, was born in Naujasodis in 1918. He studied at the Belvederis Dairy School. Uncle Bronius often told us how he had been arrested by the NKVD, transported to labour camps twice, and escaped on both occasions. He returned from Russia on foot, travelling at night. After the deportations subsided, he worked for many years as a technologist at the dairies in Šakyna and Grinkiškis. Later he settled in Panevėžys and never married. Like my mother, he maintained a close friendship with Lėja Šeštokienė.
     For three long years, many people risked their own lives and the lives of their loved ones to save Lėja Šeštokienė and her son Anatolijus from death during the Nazi occupation. In 2000, Eugenija and Viktoras Pekarskis and their daughter Neonila Pekarskytė-Pakalniškienė were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations; they were also awarded the Life Saving Cross. In 2026, Stasė Strolienė (Šereivaitė-Padgurskienė) and Bronius Šereiva, who risked their lives to save Lėja Šeštokienė, were also awarded the Life Saving Cross.