rescuers of jews
Žvironas Antanas
Antanas ŽVIRONAS
Veronika ŽVIRONAITĖ
The spectre of the brown plague was still haunting Europe. The boots of the German soldiers trampled the streets of Vilnius, too. The first crowds of people marked with yellow stars were driven towards the narrow streets of the Old Town. The townspeople learned a new word: “ghetto”. Some looked at the despairing wrinkled faces of their former neighbours with curiosity, and others with great compassion. The time had come to choose whether to live in fear or to daringly meet the challenge of fate.
Old Vilniusites knew well Professor Antanas Žvironas, the dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, the author of six monographs, five textbooks and nearly 50 articles. He was respected by his students for his honest and impeccable character, and by his academic colleagues for his great erudition and his tolerance of other opinions. The professor himself held materialistic, humanist, socialdemocratic convictions. It seemed that no circumstances could disturb his academic calm. There was so much to be done in the field of physics, a lot of new and interesting research lay in store for him. However, the clenched fist of history knocked on the door of the professor’s study as well. Quoting and slightly paraphrasing a famous poet, “Theory is a dry branch, but the prolific tree of life is always in full blossom.” That was when he had to take part in the solution of the urgent problems of other people. Leaving his study, the professor became a part of ghetto history.
The last days of the ghetto were drawing closer. Every day groups of the condemned were taken on their last journey. Professor Žvironas continued visiting his colleagues in the ghetto, taking them food, informing them about the rumours sweeping around the city, and warning them of the danger of actions. He helped Professor Jokūbas Žirnauskas to hide in the country.
The story of this noble man does not end with his work and is not limited by the dates of his birth and death. One man doing good not for the sake of good but to serve others, and sincere and sacrificing love, fires up others, too.
Professor Žvironas’ sisters and other relatives are worth mentioning as well. The lives and work of all of them are united by the ideas of social democracy and true humanism.
The Žvironas kin, residing in the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas and in the town of Užpaliai, Utena district, were deeply concerned about the fate of those wearing a yellow star on their breast.
The professor’s sister Veronika Žvironaitė, a teacher, was awarded the Yad Vashem Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations and the Certificate of Honour in 2000. During the war, she lived in her brother’s flat in Kaunas and had one big room that she shared with Tamara Lazersonaitė, who had gone into hiding. Anusia Keilsonaitė was not refused shelter in the family of another sister, Ona Žvironaitė-Janonienė, in Užpaliai. She subsequently wrote: “I cannot count how many places of residence I have had in my life. It was only in Norvaišiai where I felt at home. Ona Janonienė and all her children, Vera, Genutė and Jonas, took care of me...”
During the war the family of Emilija Žvironaitė-Kirvelienė lived with her brother, Professor Žvironas, in Vilnius, in the Chodkevičius Palace, at that time used as apartments for university teachers. Kirvelienė took care of both families. Besides, many ghetto refugees found their way to that flat. Her husband Jonas Kirvelis also opened the doors to freedom to a number of persecuted people.
Regrettably, after the war, when the Bolsheviks came to power again, the fate of the professor himself ended in tragedy. KGB prison cell no. 428 became his home for a long time.
Jokūbas Movšovičius and Jokūbas Žirnauskas, who had been rescued by the professor, dared to apply to the NKGB in writing, endeavouring to rescue the detained scientist: “Everything that Professor A. Žvironas did to rescue us, he did without our knowledge and request, and without any expectation of reward or gratitude; he did it guided by love of another human being. As a man with a noble soul and infinite humanity, he devoted himself entirely to easing the sufferings of the victims of the cruelty of fascism.”
However, it did not help. Professor Žvironas was sentenced to ten years in prison for anti-Soviet activity, and exiled to a concentration camp in the far north. There he met another martyr in exile, the philosophy professor Lev Karsavin. This is what Karsavin said about Žvironas to a fellow prisoner: “Professor Žvironas is very dear to me. He is one of the best sons of Lithuania.”
He returned to Lithuania from the Pechora concentration camp only in 1954, and died the same year. Veronika Žvironaitė was also exiled to Siberia. Both Anusia and Tamara will remember these honest and brave people all their lives.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 3,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 2005
Veronika ŽVIRONAITĖ
The spectre of the brown plague was still haunting Europe. The boots of the German soldiers trampled the streets of Vilnius, too. The first crowds of people marked with yellow stars were driven towards the narrow streets of the Old Town. The townspeople learned a new word: “ghetto”. Some looked at the despairing wrinkled faces of their former neighbours with curiosity, and others with great compassion. The time had come to choose whether to live in fear or to daringly meet the challenge of fate.
Old Vilniusites knew well Professor Antanas Žvironas, the dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, the author of six monographs, five textbooks and nearly 50 articles. He was respected by his students for his honest and impeccable character, and by his academic colleagues for his great erudition and his tolerance of other opinions. The professor himself held materialistic, humanist, socialdemocratic convictions. It seemed that no circumstances could disturb his academic calm. There was so much to be done in the field of physics, a lot of new and interesting research lay in store for him. However, the clenched fist of history knocked on the door of the professor’s study as well. Quoting and slightly paraphrasing a famous poet, “Theory is a dry branch, but the prolific tree of life is always in full blossom.” That was when he had to take part in the solution of the urgent problems of other people. Leaving his study, the professor became a part of ghetto history.
The last days of the ghetto were drawing closer. Every day groups of the condemned were taken on their last journey. Professor Žvironas continued visiting his colleagues in the ghetto, taking them food, informing them about the rumours sweeping around the city, and warning them of the danger of actions. He helped Professor Jokūbas Žirnauskas to hide in the country.
The story of this noble man does not end with his work and is not limited by the dates of his birth and death. One man doing good not for the sake of good but to serve others, and sincere and sacrificing love, fires up others, too.
Professor Žvironas’ sisters and other relatives are worth mentioning as well. The lives and work of all of them are united by the ideas of social democracy and true humanism.
The Žvironas kin, residing in the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas and in the town of Užpaliai, Utena district, were deeply concerned about the fate of those wearing a yellow star on their breast.
The professor’s sister Veronika Žvironaitė, a teacher, was awarded the Yad Vashem Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations and the Certificate of Honour in 2000. During the war, she lived in her brother’s flat in Kaunas and had one big room that she shared with Tamara Lazersonaitė, who had gone into hiding. Anusia Keilsonaitė was not refused shelter in the family of another sister, Ona Žvironaitė-Janonienė, in Užpaliai. She subsequently wrote: “I cannot count how many places of residence I have had in my life. It was only in Norvaišiai where I felt at home. Ona Janonienė and all her children, Vera, Genutė and Jonas, took care of me...”
During the war the family of Emilija Žvironaitė-Kirvelienė lived with her brother, Professor Žvironas, in Vilnius, in the Chodkevičius Palace, at that time used as apartments for university teachers. Kirvelienė took care of both families. Besides, many ghetto refugees found their way to that flat. Her husband Jonas Kirvelis also opened the doors to freedom to a number of persecuted people.
Regrettably, after the war, when the Bolsheviks came to power again, the fate of the professor himself ended in tragedy. KGB prison cell no. 428 became his home for a long time.
Jokūbas Movšovičius and Jokūbas Žirnauskas, who had been rescued by the professor, dared to apply to the NKGB in writing, endeavouring to rescue the detained scientist: “Everything that Professor A. Žvironas did to rescue us, he did without our knowledge and request, and without any expectation of reward or gratitude; he did it guided by love of another human being. As a man with a noble soul and infinite humanity, he devoted himself entirely to easing the sufferings of the victims of the cruelty of fascism.”
However, it did not help. Professor Žvironas was sentenced to ten years in prison for anti-Soviet activity, and exiled to a concentration camp in the far north. There he met another martyr in exile, the philosophy professor Lev Karsavin. This is what Karsavin said about Žvironas to a fellow prisoner: “Professor Žvironas is very dear to me. He is one of the best sons of Lithuania.”
He returned to Lithuania from the Pechora concentration camp only in 1954, and died the same year. Veronika Žvironaitė was also exiled to Siberia. Both Anusia and Tamara will remember these honest and brave people all their lives.
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 3,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 2005