rescuers of jews
Sperlingienė Judit
JUDITA SPERLINGIENĖ
Rumors about the murder of the Jewish children appeared and were spread in the Kaunas Ghetto. Ida Šaterienė, Ronia Rozentalienė, Šeina Berelovičienė, Polia Muselienė, Šeina Lupšicienė (awarded with the Life Rescuers Cross), Judita Zupavičienė (Judit Sperlingienė) and others, the members of underground organization, began to look for the people outside the ghetto, who were ready to rescue Jewish children. They risked very much but did their search, ignoring the waylay dangers.
Judit Sperlingienė recalls:
Rina, one year aged girl with rose chins, was my husband brother‘s daughter. Me and Julius didn‘t have children yet. We had to rescue the girl. How could we receive the place for her at the Lithuanians in the city?
My husband Yehuda Zupovich had worked with architect and earl Vladimiras Zubovas before the war. He helped me to contact Dr. Baublys who at the time was the head of the Lopselis foster home. We agreed that I would take little Rina in the dark time and Mr. Baublys would wait inside to take her in. The Kaunas Ghetto was just close to the bridge and the foster home– across the River Neris, at the end of the Vilijampolė district. We injected the girl with some sedatives and wrote IRINA [this does not sound Jewish], and the last name Krikščiūnaitytė [this was the name of the street where they had lived] on her arm.
I see myself again – I am walking with my heart beating and I am carrying a little girl, and her aunt Frida is walking with me, as she had to help me to carry the girl. There were many people at the gates of the ghetto coming from the work brigades. It was an early evening, dark, cold, and lots of tired, shabby, hungry people who were waiting for a check-up before they were allowed to go into the ghetto. One could not take anything except for firewood into the ghetto. People were hiding the food as much as possible so they could take it in, but if it was found, it was taken from them. We were lucky to escape when the Lithuanian and German policemen did not see us and we were helped by the Jewish policemen.
The girl was dressed up warm and we decided to put her near the gates thinking that somebody passing by would take her to Lopšelis. We placed little Rina there and looked back while running away. The girl woke up because of the cold snow and started crawling. We did not come back... She could not crawl too far, thank god she was not walking yet. An hour later we were in the ghetto.
Rina Zupavičiūtė was destined to survive. The policeman, who once took her from Dr. Baublys‘ supervised „Lopselis“ foster house in order to adopt her, finally returned her to ghetto. She was once more carried out from ghetto to the city where the Lithuanian woman rescued her. Judita Zupavičienė‘s (now Judit Sperlingienė) husband Jehuda Zupavičius, the deputy chief of the ghetto Jewish police, was arrested during the Children action, together with the other Jewish policemen, and was cruelly killed in the 9-th fort. He didn‘t betray where the Kaunas ghetto children were hid.
Rina Zupavičiūtė-Wolbe, the girl rescued in the war time, as well as Judita Sperlingienė, her rescuer, – both of them today live in Israel.
Rumors about the murder of the Jewish children appeared and were spread in the Kaunas Ghetto. Ida Šaterienė, Ronia Rozentalienė, Šeina Berelovičienė, Polia Muselienė, Šeina Lupšicienė (awarded with the Life Rescuers Cross), Judita Zupavičienė (Judit Sperlingienė) and others, the members of underground organization, began to look for the people outside the ghetto, who were ready to rescue Jewish children. They risked very much but did their search, ignoring the waylay dangers.
Judit Sperlingienė recalls:
Rina, one year aged girl with rose chins, was my husband brother‘s daughter. Me and Julius didn‘t have children yet. We had to rescue the girl. How could we receive the place for her at the Lithuanians in the city?
My husband Yehuda Zupovich had worked with architect and earl Vladimiras Zubovas before the war. He helped me to contact Dr. Baublys who at the time was the head of the Lopselis foster home. We agreed that I would take little Rina in the dark time and Mr. Baublys would wait inside to take her in. The Kaunas Ghetto was just close to the bridge and the foster home– across the River Neris, at the end of the Vilijampolė district. We injected the girl with some sedatives and wrote IRINA [this does not sound Jewish], and the last name Krikščiūnaitytė [this was the name of the street where they had lived] on her arm.
I see myself again – I am walking with my heart beating and I am carrying a little girl, and her aunt Frida is walking with me, as she had to help me to carry the girl. There were many people at the gates of the ghetto coming from the work brigades. It was an early evening, dark, cold, and lots of tired, shabby, hungry people who were waiting for a check-up before they were allowed to go into the ghetto. One could not take anything except for firewood into the ghetto. People were hiding the food as much as possible so they could take it in, but if it was found, it was taken from them. We were lucky to escape when the Lithuanian and German policemen did not see us and we were helped by the Jewish policemen.
The girl was dressed up warm and we decided to put her near the gates thinking that somebody passing by would take her to Lopšelis. We placed little Rina there and looked back while running away. The girl woke up because of the cold snow and started crawling. We did not come back... She could not crawl too far, thank god she was not walking yet. An hour later we were in the ghetto.
Rina Zupavičiūtė was destined to survive. The policeman, who once took her from Dr. Baublys‘ supervised „Lopselis“ foster house in order to adopt her, finally returned her to ghetto. She was once more carried out from ghetto to the city where the Lithuanian woman rescued her. Judita Zupavičienė‘s (now Judit Sperlingienė) husband Jehuda Zupavičius, the deputy chief of the ghetto Jewish police, was arrested during the Children action, together with the other Jewish policemen, and was cruelly killed in the 9-th fort. He didn‘t betray where the Kaunas ghetto children were hid.
Rina Zupavičiūtė-Wolbe, the girl rescued in the war time, as well as Judita Sperlingienė, her rescuer, – both of them today live in Israel.