Rescuers of Jews
Chlopinaitė Elena
Rieta Volpert about Elena Chlopinaitė
“Well, I knew her fairly well and can only guess about a thing that had happened when I was little.
Lena came from Mažeikiai. Apparently in 1911, but anyway before the revolution, she graduated the Mariinka course in Petersburg. Later, in the thirties, she became my governess in the home of the well-off family of my parents, a solicitor and a music teacher, in Kaunas.
Ascetically serious and demanding first of all to herself, Lena instilled the same in me, but with a considerable share of conventual compassion and concession to my weaknesses.
She was always extremely clean, scrupulously tidy, and although she never raised her voice, it was void of monotony. Feeling and conviction were always felt in her even quiet voice. It was always like this: when my parents were alive, and many years after their death in the ghetto, right up to her own death. Lena and I never parted. Except maybe during the war, when she hastily took me from Kaunas to her relatives not far from Mažeikiai. After the war Lena went to Vilnius where I was studying at a music school and then the conservatoire. After graduation I had to work in Šiauliai – Lena went with me. In 1974, I went to Israel – my “mother” was with me. We could never have imagined being apart from one another.”
P.S. Solicitor from Kaunas, Professor A. Tumėnas took part in rescuing Rieta Volpertaitė, solicitor P. Byla provided her with forged documents in the name of Danutė Kazlauskaitė, Valė Nartaitytė hid the girl in her home when Elena Chlopinaitė went away in search of a shelter in the village; Rieta Volpertaitė also lived in the flat of Eugenija Musteikienė in Mažeikiai.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 1,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 1997
“Well, I knew her fairly well and can only guess about a thing that had happened when I was little.
Lena came from Mažeikiai. Apparently in 1911, but anyway before the revolution, she graduated the Mariinka course in Petersburg. Later, in the thirties, she became my governess in the home of the well-off family of my parents, a solicitor and a music teacher, in Kaunas.
Ascetically serious and demanding first of all to herself, Lena instilled the same in me, but with a considerable share of conventual compassion and concession to my weaknesses.
She was always extremely clean, scrupulously tidy, and although she never raised her voice, it was void of monotony. Feeling and conviction were always felt in her even quiet voice. It was always like this: when my parents were alive, and many years after their death in the ghetto, right up to her own death. Lena and I never parted. Except maybe during the war, when she hastily took me from Kaunas to her relatives not far from Mažeikiai. After the war Lena went to Vilnius where I was studying at a music school and then the conservatoire. After graduation I had to work in Šiauliai – Lena went with me. In 1974, I went to Israel – my “mother” was with me. We could never have imagined being apart from one another.”
P.S. Solicitor from Kaunas, Professor A. Tumėnas took part in rescuing Rieta Volpertaitė, solicitor P. Byla provided her with forged documents in the name of Danutė Kazlauskaitė, Valė Nartaitytė hid the girl in her home when Elena Chlopinaitė went away in search of a shelter in the village; Rieta Volpertaitė also lived in the flat of Eugenija Musteikienė in Mažeikiai.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 1,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 1997