rescuers of jews

Stanislava DAMANSKAITĖ Petras DAMANSKAS Pranė DAMANSKIENĖ Stefanija KULEVIČIŪTĖ Kipras ŽUKAUSKAS Julija ŽUKAUSKIENĖ The Shapira’s family (Yitzhak and Taibe) lived near the town of Kelmė. They had two children – son Yosef (born in 1930) and daughter Dora (born in 1933). On the 25th of June 1941 the Germans seized Kelmė and 2 months later the father of the family – Yitzhak – was killed. Other members of the family managed to escape and along with other relatives had been hiding in Aukšmiškis forest for 5 weeks. Stanislava Damanskaitė, their former nanny, as well as Stefanija Kulevičiūtė (their former house help) found out that the Shapira family was hiding in the forest and decided to help them. Stanislava first of all took Dora, who was the youngest, to hers small room in the outskirts of Kelmė. Then she returned to Aukšmiškis forest and took Dora’s brother Yosef. When she went there for the third time, nobody was alive. Dora and Yosef were hiding in the small Stanislava‘s room for 3 weeks. It was very dangerous, because the neighbors knew the children. Due to this reason Stanislava found for Yosef a new shelter in faraway village. He stayed and worked there about two years. One day he returned to Stanislava and was at her for several weeks. She found for him another hiding place and he stayed there until the end of the war. Stanislava Damanskaitė led Dora to Stefanija Kulevičiūtė who had been hiding her about one month. With help of Stanislava and Stefanija Dora moved to several other families, one after another. In 1942 Dora was hosted by large Žukauskas family. The head of family Kipras Žukauskas his wife Julija Žukauskienė, the 15 years old eldest daughter of Genė Žukauskaitė (now Furmonavičienė), as well as their son Aloyzas Žukauskas, who was the 11 years old, hid, fed Dora and cared for her. All Žukauskas family members knew that they could lose their lives saving Dora. When the incessant searches started, Stefanija Kulevičiūtė took Dora at her place again. During 1943 Dora changed several hiding places; everything was done with the help of Stanislava and Stefanija. In the spring of 1944 m. Stanislava Damanskaitė took Dora to her brother Petras Damanskas who lived in Kirkliai village close to Lioliai. Petras Damanskas, his wife Pranė Damanskienė and their daughter Valerija Damanskaitė (now – Tarasevičienė) together with Stanislava hid Dora and cared for her until the liberation of Kelmė in the beginning of October 1944.