Rescuers of Jews

       Before the Second World War, the Jewish Tabarišskis family lived in Vilkaviškis. They were a well-known family in the town. Mejer Tabarišskis and his brother Benia owned an oil press. The family followed Jewish traditions, were Zionists, and dreamed of an independent State of Israel. In 1937, Mejer Tabarišskis traveled to Palestine, but since he had a wife and two young daughters, he did not dare to repatriate.
       On June 22, 1941, when the Nazis occupied Vilkaviškis, the persecution of Jews began immediately. On July 28, during a mass execution at a former Soviet military site, the majority of Vilkaviškis’s Jewish men – about 500-600 – were shot. The Tabarišskis family survived this massacre, but during the second wave of killings, Mejer Tabarišskis, his wife Sima, and their older daughter Tania were murdered. Their younger daughter, six-year-old Liudmila, miraculously survived but was soon imprisoned with a group of Jewish men, women, and children in a death cell. Matilda Dobilaitė, a woman from Vilkaviškis who worked as the housekeeper for the local parish priest Adomas Povilaitis, had known the Tabarišskis family well before the war. She decided to rescue Liudmila. Matilda appealed to the authorities, claiming that the girl was not Jewish but had simply been raised by a Jewish family. While the petition was under review, Matilda visited Liudmila daily, bringing her food and comforting her. After some time, Liudmila was released and placed in Matilda’s care. Matilda baptized the girl and gave her the name Teresė. She taught her to pray and took her to church every Sunday. Matilda earned a living by sewing and working as a cook. While she was away working, Liudmila stayed home. Since she could not attend school during the war, Matilda encouraged her to study independently. Matilda hid the Tabarišskis girl for three years. After the war, Liudmila continued to live with Matilda until 1950, when her aunt found her and took her to Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). While Matilda was still alive, Liudmila would travel from Saint Petersburg to visit her.
       In 2009, Matilda Dobilaitė was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. In 2025, she was posthumously awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross by the Lithuanian state.