rescuers of jews
Baliukevič Kesareva Zofija
Zofija BALIUKEVIČ-KESAREVA
Her whole life in the same town, in the same street, in a little wooden house ... Mrs. Zofija Baliukevič-Kesareva is a witness to many an event. Today when the former residents of Nemenčinė or their children or grandchildren come to the town, they go to Zofija to listen to stories, however horrible, from the mouth of a witness. Zofija Baliukevič will never forget the day of the massacre of the Jews of Nemenčinė. It was due to a miracle that her neighbours' daughter, Golda Trakinska, managed to escape from the crowd driven to death. For several days Golda and Pesia Levinsonienė, another neighbour, were hiding in the attic of the Baliukevič. Later they hid in the woods... Many years later, Zofija received a letter from Golda's sister Chanka, Zofija's friend from school.
...I cannot describe in words the feelings that overwhelmed me while reading your letter. It seemed to me that we were swinging in the swing on the veranda. All the memories of our childhood, unusually vivid, appeared before my eyes. Do you remember our outings to the riverside? And picking berries? I beg you to write me if you are still living in the same house. Is our house still there, and the Jewish cemetery on the way to Losiuvka – is it still there? What does our town look like? Are those wonderful woods still around, and is the Vilija still carrying its waters across Nemenčinė? Everything has risen so vividly in my eyes, it seems we are sitting on the veranda overgrown with flowers that you and your mother used to grow. You have always been very gifted at everything. You were the most intellectual of all of us. You were always an example to me.
When the Jews were massacred in Nemenčinė, I ran away to Byelorussia. For three and a half years I hid in the woods. Only God knows what I went through there. I was taken to a camp in Germany. I stayed there until the departure of the French. Then I got here, to Switzerland, and married a Swiss. Golda lives in Palestine. She has an eight-year-old daughter. Golda herself is, unfortunately, almost blind because she hid in a village, was very poorly fed, and had to work very hard during the years of the occupation. She told me that you saved her life...
Later, the letters arrived regularly from Switzerland. And if one day Chanka Tennenbaum, nee Trakinska, decides to come to visit her childhood friend Zosė, she will find her without difficulty. The central street of the town has changed its name numerous times – on different occasions it was Niemenczynska, Swiencianska, Legionowa, Tarybų; now it is Švencionių again. Yet the same small wooden house overgrown with vines stands where it has always stood the first from the well.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 2,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 1999
Her whole life in the same town, in the same street, in a little wooden house ... Mrs. Zofija Baliukevič-Kesareva is a witness to many an event. Today when the former residents of Nemenčinė or their children or grandchildren come to the town, they go to Zofija to listen to stories, however horrible, from the mouth of a witness. Zofija Baliukevič will never forget the day of the massacre of the Jews of Nemenčinė. It was due to a miracle that her neighbours' daughter, Golda Trakinska, managed to escape from the crowd driven to death. For several days Golda and Pesia Levinsonienė, another neighbour, were hiding in the attic of the Baliukevič. Later they hid in the woods... Many years later, Zofija received a letter from Golda's sister Chanka, Zofija's friend from school.
...I cannot describe in words the feelings that overwhelmed me while reading your letter. It seemed to me that we were swinging in the swing on the veranda. All the memories of our childhood, unusually vivid, appeared before my eyes. Do you remember our outings to the riverside? And picking berries? I beg you to write me if you are still living in the same house. Is our house still there, and the Jewish cemetery on the way to Losiuvka – is it still there? What does our town look like? Are those wonderful woods still around, and is the Vilija still carrying its waters across Nemenčinė? Everything has risen so vividly in my eyes, it seems we are sitting on the veranda overgrown with flowers that you and your mother used to grow. You have always been very gifted at everything. You were the most intellectual of all of us. You were always an example to me.
When the Jews were massacred in Nemenčinė, I ran away to Byelorussia. For three and a half years I hid in the woods. Only God knows what I went through there. I was taken to a camp in Germany. I stayed there until the departure of the French. Then I got here, to Switzerland, and married a Swiss. Golda lives in Palestine. She has an eight-year-old daughter. Golda herself is, unfortunately, almost blind because she hid in a village, was very poorly fed, and had to work very hard during the years of the occupation. She told me that you saved her life...
Later, the letters arrived regularly from Switzerland. And if one day Chanka Tennenbaum, nee Trakinska, decides to come to visit her childhood friend Zosė, she will find her without difficulty. The central street of the town has changed its name numerous times – on different occasions it was Niemenczynska, Swiencianska, Legionowa, Tarybų; now it is Švencionių again. Yet the same small wooden house overgrown with vines stands where it has always stood the first from the well.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 2,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 1999