rescued jewish children
Ira Reiches-Roth and Tamara Chonovitz-Apelbaum
They raised me
Ira Roth (Reiches)
From the 4th book Hands Bringing Life and Bread
I didn’t know anything about my real parents for a very long time. I was born on 21 March 1941 in Vilnius. My parents Israel and Ida Reiches lived before the war in that city.
When the Germans came, we stayed at my grandparents’ summer cottage near Vilnius. My parents, grandparents, and aunts – in all about 10 people – were at the summer cottage. One September night all of them were driven out from there into the Vilnius Ghetto.
That night my parents escaped, while I and my cousin Tamara Chonovich who, like me, were just a few months old (she was born in 1941), were taken by my aunt Lida Chonovich, Tamara’s mother, into the ghetto.
My parents were quickly captured and with other people driven into the ghetto. On the way people tried to escape, and shooting occurred. My mother managed to escape – father pushed her into a ditch, however she didn’t see my father anymore. My father’s place of death is still unknown.
My mother, having wandered for a while, decided to go to the ghetto, because in any case she had nowhere to go. She along with my aunt started to discuss where to hide the children, i.e. me and my cousin Tamara.
They found a shoemaker whom they knew and who promised to look for a good woman. He found one quickly, gave my mother the address, and one day my mother and aunt took both me and Tamara in one baby pram to Kalvarijų Street 4-2. That was how we ended up at the place of Jelena Stepanovna Grigorjeva, a woman with an unusually kind heart. In order that it wouldn’t be so dangerous to keep us, a rumour was spread, that we are the twin daughters of her older daughter Liusia. That was how Jelena Grigorjeva became our second mother. I had light hair, not similar to a Jewish girl, and I received documents under the name Ira Burak. Later (as Ira Burak) I started going to school.
Jelena Stepanovna’s daughter Ira, whose name was the same as mine, also lived with her, she was 16 at the time. They took care of us like their own daughters.
My mother along with Tamara’s mother escaped that same autumn from the Vilnius ghetto and hid in villages in Belarus until the end of the war. After the war Tamara’s mother took her daughter back, and I stayed with my rescuers for a longer time.I didn’t know anything about my real mother for a very long time.
My mother emigrated to Poland after the war, and thought to take me back later, however she was not able to do that, because the Soviet Union did not let emigrants in. She started to look for me, and one day (I was about 10 years old at the time) I and Jelena Stepanovna were called to the KGB. There my mother Jelena was left in the corridor, and I was taken by adults to an office and told, that my real mother was a Jew and wanted to take me to Israel. I started to cry and I said, that I wasn’t going to go anywhere, because I didn’t want to believe it, I really loved my “Russian mother” Jelena Stepanovna, as I didn’t know another mother at the time. The “good” adults told me to sign that I had refused to go to Israel. And that’s what I did.
It was just then that Jelena Stepanovna told me, that it’s all true – my real mother Ida Reiches lives in Israel
We started getting letters from Israel. The first time I saw my mother was in 1957, when she received permission to visit me, and in 1961 I left for Israel. I had to leave my “Russian mom” Jelena Stepanovna, her daughter Irina, and that was not easy to do. They had raised me, and living with them I finished school, and started to study at the institute, and I was loved and pampered the whole time. It’s hard to think, what would have happened if it wouldn’t have been for those noble-hearted and brave people, who did not fear risking their lives for two small girls they didn’t even know.
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2009
Ira Roth (Reiches)
From the 4th book Hands Bringing Life and Bread
I didn’t know anything about my real parents for a very long time. I was born on 21 March 1941 in Vilnius. My parents Israel and Ida Reiches lived before the war in that city.
When the Germans came, we stayed at my grandparents’ summer cottage near Vilnius. My parents, grandparents, and aunts – in all about 10 people – were at the summer cottage. One September night all of them were driven out from there into the Vilnius Ghetto.
That night my parents escaped, while I and my cousin Tamara Chonovich who, like me, were just a few months old (she was born in 1941), were taken by my aunt Lida Chonovich, Tamara’s mother, into the ghetto.
My parents were quickly captured and with other people driven into the ghetto. On the way people tried to escape, and shooting occurred. My mother managed to escape – father pushed her into a ditch, however she didn’t see my father anymore. My father’s place of death is still unknown.
My mother, having wandered for a while, decided to go to the ghetto, because in any case she had nowhere to go. She along with my aunt started to discuss where to hide the children, i.e. me and my cousin Tamara.
They found a shoemaker whom they knew and who promised to look for a good woman. He found one quickly, gave my mother the address, and one day my mother and aunt took both me and Tamara in one baby pram to Kalvarijų Street 4-2. That was how we ended up at the place of Jelena Stepanovna Grigorjeva, a woman with an unusually kind heart. In order that it wouldn’t be so dangerous to keep us, a rumour was spread, that we are the twin daughters of her older daughter Liusia. That was how Jelena Grigorjeva became our second mother. I had light hair, not similar to a Jewish girl, and I received documents under the name Ira Burak. Later (as Ira Burak) I started going to school.
Jelena Stepanovna’s daughter Ira, whose name was the same as mine, also lived with her, she was 16 at the time. They took care of us like their own daughters.
My mother along with Tamara’s mother escaped that same autumn from the Vilnius ghetto and hid in villages in Belarus until the end of the war. After the war Tamara’s mother took her daughter back, and I stayed with my rescuers for a longer time.I didn’t know anything about my real mother for a very long time.
My mother emigrated to Poland after the war, and thought to take me back later, however she was not able to do that, because the Soviet Union did not let emigrants in. She started to look for me, and one day (I was about 10 years old at the time) I and Jelena Stepanovna were called to the KGB. There my mother Jelena was left in the corridor, and I was taken by adults to an office and told, that my real mother was a Jew and wanted to take me to Israel. I started to cry and I said, that I wasn’t going to go anywhere, because I didn’t want to believe it, I really loved my “Russian mother” Jelena Stepanovna, as I didn’t know another mother at the time. The “good” adults told me to sign that I had refused to go to Israel. And that’s what I did.
It was just then that Jelena Stepanovna told me, that it’s all true – my real mother Ida Reiches lives in Israel
We started getting letters from Israel. The first time I saw my mother was in 1957, when she received permission to visit me, and in 1961 I left for Israel. I had to leave my “Russian mom” Jelena Stepanovna, her daughter Irina, and that was not easy to do. They had raised me, and living with them I finished school, and started to study at the institute, and I was loved and pampered the whole time. It’s hard to think, what would have happened if it wouldn’t have been for those noble-hearted and brave people, who did not fear risking their lives for two small girls they didn’t even know.
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, 2009