rescuers of jews
Simanavičius Balys
From Rūta Lopianskaitė-Gorinienė's Memoirs
My mother’s sister Riva Pomerancienė, her husband Danielius Pomerancas, famous violinist of the pre-war Kaunas, and their one and a half years old daughter lived with us in the ghetto.
Like the rest of the ghetto prisoners, my mother was doing forced labour in the city. Each night upon returning to the ghetto she would be searched by the guards at the gates as the prisoners were not even allowed to bring bread for their families. The searches caused great suffering to her and her health declined because of constant stress.
Then, the ghetto prisoners found out about the upcoming roundup of children. Worried parents tried to save their children. Hideouts were built in basements and attics. My family decided to hide the three children – me and my mother’s cousin’s twins who were a bit older than me – in an oven. The interior of the oven was dismantled and all bricks were removed to make enough space for three children. On that horrible day, we were hidden in that oven.
The Germans came into the apartment and started throwing and breaking things with their batons. One of the twins sneezed and the Germans heard him. They opened the oven and pulled us out. I was very small but it must have been an important event for me as I remember everything very clearly. One of the Germans took the twins and their mother to the car and drove away. We later found out that the children were shot down. My mother picked me up and looked at me for a long time as if anticipating a disaster. Then she sat me on a polished brown table and started dressing me up very slowly. Later, a German soldier put me and my mother in a car and took us to some open field. He got out of the car and hinted us to run. My mother picked me up, got out of the car as fast as she could and this is how we escaped.
This was a very good sign to use this opportunity and save me and the rest of the children. People who had friends and acquaintances tried to smuggle the children out of the ghetto and hide them.
My mother had such an acquaintance too. Mr. Balys Simanavičius was the director of the Kaunas fur factory “Lapė”. My mother knew him before the war. One day, they agreed to get me out of the ghetto. Shortly I was drugged, put in a potato sack and smuggled out of the ghetto under an agreement with the gate guard.
Balys Simanavičius took me to the farmers living in a village near Kaunas. My mother managed to hide in Kaunas. Balys Simanavičius helped her find a hideout in the attic of one of the houses in Kaunas suburbs. She would spend long days and nights all by herself in that hideout.
When the Russians came back, Balys Simanavičiaus was exiled to Siberia despite all his good deeds. In 1953-54, he returned and we met multiple times. He told me a lot about my parents, the ghetto and my escape.
In a similar fashion, Danutė, daughter of my aunt Riva Pomerancienė, was also smuggled out of the ghetto with the help of Balys Simanavičius and taken to the family of the famous opera singer Kipras Petrauskas. The Petrauskas family knew Danielius Pomerancas, the famous violinist, and his family very well. Danielius Pomerancas himself was taken to the Dachau concentration camp by the Germans. The Petrauskas family risked their lives and the lives of their three children and took the year-and-a-half old Jewish girl, who was also brought to them drugged. The Petrauskas family was known to everybody in the city and obviously everyone knew that they had no little babies.
Mrs. Petrauskienė said she was waiting with fear for the girl to awake as she did not know what language she would speak. The name Danutė was given to her upon arrival in the new family.
Thus, me and my cousin found ourselves in new families while my mother Rocha Lopi
Vilnius, 2009
My mother’s sister Riva Pomerancienė, her husband Danielius Pomerancas, famous violinist of the pre-war Kaunas, and their one and a half years old daughter lived with us in the ghetto.
Like the rest of the ghetto prisoners, my mother was doing forced labour in the city. Each night upon returning to the ghetto she would be searched by the guards at the gates as the prisoners were not even allowed to bring bread for their families. The searches caused great suffering to her and her health declined because of constant stress.
Then, the ghetto prisoners found out about the upcoming roundup of children. Worried parents tried to save their children. Hideouts were built in basements and attics. My family decided to hide the three children – me and my mother’s cousin’s twins who were a bit older than me – in an oven. The interior of the oven was dismantled and all bricks were removed to make enough space for three children. On that horrible day, we were hidden in that oven.
The Germans came into the apartment and started throwing and breaking things with their batons. One of the twins sneezed and the Germans heard him. They opened the oven and pulled us out. I was very small but it must have been an important event for me as I remember everything very clearly. One of the Germans took the twins and their mother to the car and drove away. We later found out that the children were shot down. My mother picked me up and looked at me for a long time as if anticipating a disaster. Then she sat me on a polished brown table and started dressing me up very slowly. Later, a German soldier put me and my mother in a car and took us to some open field. He got out of the car and hinted us to run. My mother picked me up, got out of the car as fast as she could and this is how we escaped.
This was a very good sign to use this opportunity and save me and the rest of the children. People who had friends and acquaintances tried to smuggle the children out of the ghetto and hide them.
My mother had such an acquaintance too. Mr. Balys Simanavičius was the director of the Kaunas fur factory “Lapė”. My mother knew him before the war. One day, they agreed to get me out of the ghetto. Shortly I was drugged, put in a potato sack and smuggled out of the ghetto under an agreement with the gate guard.
Balys Simanavičius took me to the farmers living in a village near Kaunas. My mother managed to hide in Kaunas. Balys Simanavičius helped her find a hideout in the attic of one of the houses in Kaunas suburbs. She would spend long days and nights all by herself in that hideout.
When the Russians came back, Balys Simanavičiaus was exiled to Siberia despite all his good deeds. In 1953-54, he returned and we met multiple times. He told me a lot about my parents, the ghetto and my escape.
In a similar fashion, Danutė, daughter of my aunt Riva Pomerancienė, was also smuggled out of the ghetto with the help of Balys Simanavičius and taken to the family of the famous opera singer Kipras Petrauskas. The Petrauskas family knew Danielius Pomerancas, the famous violinist, and his family very well. Danielius Pomerancas himself was taken to the Dachau concentration camp by the Germans. The Petrauskas family risked their lives and the lives of their three children and took the year-and-a-half old Jewish girl, who was also brought to them drugged. The Petrauskas family was known to everybody in the city and obviously everyone knew that they had no little babies.
Mrs. Petrauskienė said she was waiting with fear for the girl to awake as she did not know what language she would speak. The name Danutė was given to her upon arrival in the new family.
Thus, me and my cousin found ourselves in new families while my mother Rocha Lopi
Vilnius, 2009