Rescuers of Jews

     Rachel Fridman was born in Kaunas in February 1938. After the outbreak of the war, in the summer of 1941, her father, Zalman Fridman, the editor of one of the Yiddish-language newspapers published in Kaunas, was murdered. Rachel, together with her mother Chaya Estera and her brother Abram, who was seven years older, was imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto. At the beginning of 1942, Chaya Estera escaped from the ghetto with her children and went into hiding. A few months later, the children's mother died under unknown circumstances, leaving them orphaned. At the beginning of the summer, they arrived in Jašiūnai, near Vilnius.
     There, the children's paths separated. Four-year-old Rachel, crying and wandering around Jašiūnai railway station, was noticed by the stationmaster, Anton Kruminis-Łozowski (Antoni Kruminis-Łozowski). Realizing that the little girl was Jewish, he decided to take her in. “Would you like to come with me?” he asked Rachel. When she agreed, he took her home.
     Antoni and Maria (Marja) Kruminis-Łozowski and their grown children, Kazimierz, Józef, Helena, and Aleksander, surrounded Rachel with warmth and care. The Kruminis-Łozowski family registered the girl as the illegitimate daughter of their eldest son, Józef, and gave her the name Hanna Czechowicz. Rachel called Antoni and Maria “Father” and “Mother.” The Kruminis-Łozowski family watched over her carefully, never allowing her to play with unfamiliar children or leave the yard on her own. Rachel remained with this family until the end of the war.
     After the war, she was found by her fourteen-year-old brother Abram. Although Antoni gradually and gently prepared Rachel to accept that she was Jewish and that Abram was her brother, the revelation was a great shock to the child, as she no longer remembered her past or her biological family. Rachel lived with the Kruminis-Łozowski family until 1950, when she was adopted by relatives – the family of her grandmother’s brother.
     Rachel married in 1959. While living in Lithuania, Rachel Fridman (Varejes) maintained close ties with her rescuers. In 1972, after Rachel emigrated to Israel and the sons of Antoni and Maria moved to Poland, contact between the families was lost until 2011. Nevertheless, Rachel never forgot her rescuers. Antoni and Maria Kruminis-Łozowski lived in Jašiūnai, Šalčininkai District, for the rest of their lives.
     At the request of Rachel Fridman-Varejes, Antoni and Maria Kruminis-Łozowski were posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2005. By decision of the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute, their names are included in the list of the Righteous of Poland.