rescuers of jews
Venckus Pranas
VENCKUS PRANAS
Father Pranas Venckus came from Upitėnai village (near Veiviržėnai). In 1918, Venckus graduated from Martynas Yčas Gymnasium in Voronezh, continued his studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, after which he obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology. After returning to Lithuania, he worked as a prefect of Kaunas Priest Seminary, and taught at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at Vytautas Magnus University. During the Nazi occupation, Fr Pranas Venckus became the main rescuer of Rachel and Shulamith, the daughters of Aryeh Malkiel Friedman and Sarah Yehudis Friedman and the attempted rescuer of Sarah Yehudis Friedman.
Before the war, the Friedmans with their three daughters, Rischel Friedman, Rachel Friedman and Shulamith Friedman, lived in Klaipėda, where the head of the family, Aryeh Malkiel Friedman, had a leather business. The older Friedman daughters, Rischel and Rachel, attended one of the most modern schools of the time, the Queen Augustine Girls’ Lyceum. In March 1939, after Nazi Germany annexed Klaipėda, the Friedman family escaped to Kaunas, where Aryeh Malkiel Friedman had friends and had studied at the Slabodke Yeshiva. In 1940, in Kaunas the eldest daughter of the Friedmans, Rischel, got engaged to Shneur Kotler, who had documents that allowed him to join his maternal grandfather in Palestine enabling him to leave Soviet-occupied Lithuania. In January 1941, after travelling via Odessa and Turkey, Shneur Kotler reached Palestine. Rischel could not leave with her fiancée. However, on 22 November 1940 in Kaunas she got fictitiously married to a German citizen named Joseph Moddel. In December 1940, using her fictitious German papers, she left for Moscow where she received a Japanese transit visa issued by Japanese Ambassador Yoshitsugu Tatekawa. In 1941, Rischel Friedman (under the name of Rischel Moddel) reached Japan via Vladivostok and from there went to Shanghai. In Shanghai, she ended up in a ghetto, went through numerous hardships, fell ill, and only in 1947 managed to reach the United States. In 1949, thanks to her incredible determination and as a result of overcoming numerous hardships, the eldest daughter of the Friedmans after 9 years of separation got married to her fiancée Rabbi Shneur Kotler in the U.S. and joined the Beth Medrash Govoha community. This famous Lithuanian yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey, was founded in 1943 by the famous Orthodox Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Shneur's father.
The fate of Aryeh Malkiel Friedman and his wife Sarah Yehudis Friedman, who remained in Kaunas during the Holocaust, was tragic: Aryeh Malkiel Friedman was murdered in Kaunas at the IXth Fort. It is believed that this happened during the Great Action on 29 October 1941. His wife Sarah Yehudis Friedman and little Shulamith were initially in the Telšiai Ghetto, fled from there, reached the Kaunas Ghetto. Sarah Yehudis did forced labor with other ghetto inmates at Aleksotas aerodrome. Sarah Yehudis later joined the Jewish partisans in the woods of Kėdainiai District. On 30 August 1944, after the Nazis surrounded the partisans and a brutal battle Sarah Yehudis Friedman was murdered. This is evidenced by the letters of Moshe Koniuchovsky, who participated in the fighting.
The Friedman daughters Rachel and Shulamith survived only thanks to their guardian Fr Pranas Venckus. Fr Venckus provided sisters Rachel and Shulamith Friedman with forged documents and found people who agreed to provide shelter for them. He repeatedly protected them. On one occasion Fr Venckus and Shulamith found themselves in a very dangerous situation. There was a search in a hospital during which the Nazis were looking for Jews. The priest was there at her bedside and said that he knew the girl's family well and convinced the police that she was Lithuanian. This saved Shulamith’s life. Her sister Rachel also testified about the help extended by Fr Venckus in her letter to her older sister Rischel written in 1945. Although sisters Rachel and Shulamith Friedman went through many difficulties when in hiding and repeatedly had to change their hiding places, but with the help of Fr Venckus they managed to stay alive.
Rachel Friedman (later Sarne) with fake documents as Onutė Kelertaitė was transported from Germany for hard labour and stayed there to see the end of the war. Shulamith Friedman (later Volpe) was rescued in Lithuania.
Rabbi Aaron Kotler, son of Rabbi Shneur Kotler and Rischel Friedman Kotler, the current President of the famous Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva in Lakewood, applied for the Life Saving Cross to be awarded to Fr Pranas Venckus.
Father Pranas Venckus came from Upitėnai village (near Veiviržėnai). In 1918, Venckus graduated from Martynas Yčas Gymnasium in Voronezh, continued his studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, after which he obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology. After returning to Lithuania, he worked as a prefect of Kaunas Priest Seminary, and taught at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at Vytautas Magnus University. During the Nazi occupation, Fr Pranas Venckus became the main rescuer of Rachel and Shulamith, the daughters of Aryeh Malkiel Friedman and Sarah Yehudis Friedman and the attempted rescuer of Sarah Yehudis Friedman.
Before the war, the Friedmans with their three daughters, Rischel Friedman, Rachel Friedman and Shulamith Friedman, lived in Klaipėda, where the head of the family, Aryeh Malkiel Friedman, had a leather business. The older Friedman daughters, Rischel and Rachel, attended one of the most modern schools of the time, the Queen Augustine Girls’ Lyceum. In March 1939, after Nazi Germany annexed Klaipėda, the Friedman family escaped to Kaunas, where Aryeh Malkiel Friedman had friends and had studied at the Slabodke Yeshiva. In 1940, in Kaunas the eldest daughter of the Friedmans, Rischel, got engaged to Shneur Kotler, who had documents that allowed him to join his maternal grandfather in Palestine enabling him to leave Soviet-occupied Lithuania. In January 1941, after travelling via Odessa and Turkey, Shneur Kotler reached Palestine. Rischel could not leave with her fiancée. However, on 22 November 1940 in Kaunas she got fictitiously married to a German citizen named Joseph Moddel. In December 1940, using her fictitious German papers, she left for Moscow where she received a Japanese transit visa issued by Japanese Ambassador Yoshitsugu Tatekawa. In 1941, Rischel Friedman (under the name of Rischel Moddel) reached Japan via Vladivostok and from there went to Shanghai. In Shanghai, she ended up in a ghetto, went through numerous hardships, fell ill, and only in 1947 managed to reach the United States. In 1949, thanks to her incredible determination and as a result of overcoming numerous hardships, the eldest daughter of the Friedmans after 9 years of separation got married to her fiancée Rabbi Shneur Kotler in the U.S. and joined the Beth Medrash Govoha community. This famous Lithuanian yeshiva in Lakewood, New Jersey, was founded in 1943 by the famous Orthodox Rabbi Aharon Kotler, Shneur's father.
The fate of Aryeh Malkiel Friedman and his wife Sarah Yehudis Friedman, who remained in Kaunas during the Holocaust, was tragic: Aryeh Malkiel Friedman was murdered in Kaunas at the IXth Fort. It is believed that this happened during the Great Action on 29 October 1941. His wife Sarah Yehudis Friedman and little Shulamith were initially in the Telšiai Ghetto, fled from there, reached the Kaunas Ghetto. Sarah Yehudis did forced labor with other ghetto inmates at Aleksotas aerodrome. Sarah Yehudis later joined the Jewish partisans in the woods of Kėdainiai District. On 30 August 1944, after the Nazis surrounded the partisans and a brutal battle Sarah Yehudis Friedman was murdered. This is evidenced by the letters of Moshe Koniuchovsky, who participated in the fighting.
The Friedman daughters Rachel and Shulamith survived only thanks to their guardian Fr Pranas Venckus. Fr Venckus provided sisters Rachel and Shulamith Friedman with forged documents and found people who agreed to provide shelter for them. He repeatedly protected them. On one occasion Fr Venckus and Shulamith found themselves in a very dangerous situation. There was a search in a hospital during which the Nazis were looking for Jews. The priest was there at her bedside and said that he knew the girl's family well and convinced the police that she was Lithuanian. This saved Shulamith’s life. Her sister Rachel also testified about the help extended by Fr Venckus in her letter to her older sister Rischel written in 1945. Although sisters Rachel and Shulamith Friedman went through many difficulties when in hiding and repeatedly had to change their hiding places, but with the help of Fr Venckus they managed to stay alive.
Rachel Friedman (later Sarne) with fake documents as Onutė Kelertaitė was transported from Germany for hard labour and stayed there to see the end of the war. Shulamith Friedman (later Volpe) was rescued in Lithuania.
Rabbi Aaron Kotler, son of Rabbi Shneur Kotler and Rischel Friedman Kotler, the current President of the famous Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva in Lakewood, applied for the Life Saving Cross to be awarded to Fr Pranas Venckus.