Rescuers of Jews
Macijauskaitė Violeta
Petras MACIJAUSKAS and his children – Violeta, Liudvika, Zenonas and Robertas
The witness, Mr. Leo Rozental, was 5 years old when in 1941 Kaunas was occupied by the Germans. He was sent to the ghetto together with his parents.
After the Great Action the Jewish families started looking for hiding places for themselves and their children. Leo’s mother, Ronia, was very active in finding a hiding place. Dressed as a nun, she took the children out of the ghetto and left them at the children house run by Dr. Petras Baublys. In the meantime she continued looking for a better and safer place. Her husband, Shmuel, knew a farmer, named Petras Macijauskas, whom he asked to give his son Leo shelter. Macijauskas agreed, though he himself was a widower, very poor and raising 4 children of his own.
Leo was treated as a son and brother in the family, and he remembered that he was one of several other Jews whom Petras Macijauskas was hiding in the house.
Rumours started spreading among the neighbours and Petras Macijauskas was taken to the Gestapo, where he was tortured severely, but as he did not admit that he was hiding Jews, Gestapo people let him go.
Leo stayed in the family until the end of the war. Once his mother, dressed as a nun, came to visit him, but he did not recognize her and it was the last time he saw her.
As it was agreed between Petras Macijauskas and Leo’s father, Shmuel, after the war Leo was sent to an orphanage, where his father found him later.
The witness, Mr. Leo Rozental, was 5 years old when in 1941 Kaunas was occupied by the Germans. He was sent to the ghetto together with his parents.
After the Great Action the Jewish families started looking for hiding places for themselves and their children. Leo’s mother, Ronia, was very active in finding a hiding place. Dressed as a nun, she took the children out of the ghetto and left them at the children house run by Dr. Petras Baublys. In the meantime she continued looking for a better and safer place. Her husband, Shmuel, knew a farmer, named Petras Macijauskas, whom he asked to give his son Leo shelter. Macijauskas agreed, though he himself was a widower, very poor and raising 4 children of his own.
Leo was treated as a son and brother in the family, and he remembered that he was one of several other Jews whom Petras Macijauskas was hiding in the house.
Rumours started spreading among the neighbours and Petras Macijauskas was taken to the Gestapo, where he was tortured severely, but as he did not admit that he was hiding Jews, Gestapo people let him go.
Leo stayed in the family until the end of the war. Once his mother, dressed as a nun, came to visit him, but he did not recognize her and it was the last time he saw her.
As it was agreed between Petras Macijauskas and Leo’s father, Shmuel, after the war Leo was sent to an orphanage, where his father found him later.