Rescuers of Jews

Julija GRINCEVIČIENĖ Ona PEČKYTĖ Vincas DAUGĖLA, Ona VIESNAUSKAITĖ The survivor, Shalom Kaplan, lived in Kaunas together with his parents and sister. The family lived in the ghetto. The mother worked at a factory “Veltinis” (felt boot factory) where she met a Lithuanian woman who helped her to find shelter for her children. On April 12, 1944, Shalom escaped from the ghetto and a woman picked him up and took him to Julija Grincevičienė, where he remained until June 1944. She was a widow and her only son was in jail. Shalom kept receiving letters from his mother through the woman who had taken him to Julija. His mother wrote to him that she was planning to evacuate him out of the city. On June 24, 1944 Ona Pečkytė (who also worked with his mother) came and took Shalom to a village called Liepynai, district Marijampolė) Pečkytė took Shalom to the family Daugėla and Ona Viesnaukaitė. From time to time she would bring him letters from his mother. Daugėla and his civil wife Ona Viesnauskaitė treated Shalom very well. He was hidden there until August 1944. After the war he returned to Kaunas and found out that both his mother and sister did not survive the war. At the beginning of 1946 with the help of good people Shalom escaped to Poland, and from there to Munich, where he found his father who had survived from the purgatory of Dachau camps and they both left for Israel. Ona Pečkytė, Julija Grincevičienė, Vincas Daugėla and Ona Viesnauskaitė recognised as Righteous Among the Nations in 2005. In 2008 Dr. Shalom Eilati (Šalomas Kaplanas) published the book: Shalom Eilati, Crossing the River, The Alabama University Press, 2008, pp. 293