rescuers of jews

     Chana Bravo was born on September 16, 1913, in Salakas, Zarasai District, to Gersh-Zvi and Malka. She attended the Utena lower secondary school and later the Hebrew Gymnasium in Vilkaviškis.
     Before the war, Chana Bravo worked as an accountant at Leiba Itzhak Fish’s haberdashery store at 8 Tilžės Street in Kaunas. After the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, Chana’s parents, brothers, and sisters were murdered, while Chana herself was imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto. From the memoirs of Chana Bravo’s close relative, Itzhak Kushnir:
     A strong, rebellious woman with a profound sense of justice, Chana joined the Anti-Fascist underground resistance organization in the Kaunas Ghetto. Her task was to establish contacts outside the ghetto – people willing to assist the organization and support its activities. In carrying out this work, Chana repeatedly left the ghetto and returned to it, risking her life each time in order to meet Lithuanian and Russian acquaintances.
     Chana Bravo succeeded in saving two children from the Kaunas Ghetto – Aleksandras Štromas and Aviva Fridmanaitė. Ten-year-old Aleksandras Štromas entered the ghetto together with his large family. His father, Jurgis Štromas, however, was no longer there, having been murdered in the Lietūkis garage massacre during the first days of the Nazi occupation. Aleksandras learned of his father’s death only after the war.
     From the memoirs of Aleksandras Štromas: It happened that only four of us survived – my sister Mara (Margaret Kagan), myself, Irutė (my cousin Irena Veisaitė), and our cousin Vova (Valdemaras) Ginsburgas. In 1943 we escaped; we all went into hiding, and they never found us. Had we not escaped, we would certainly have died. Of course, I was helped to escape. I was only a child and could never have done it alone. There was an informal group in the ghetto seeking ways to rescue children. They searched for contacts among Lithuanians outside the ghetto who were willing to risk their lives by taking in and protecting a child. <...>
     There was a woman in the ghetto named Chana Bravo. She had worked with my father as an accountant at "Parama." They had not been particularly close before the war, but in the ghetto she became extremely active in finding hiding places for children. During the interwar period, Chana Bravo had worked with Mrs. Macenavičienė at the Agricultural Bank. Mrs. Macenavičienė was also an accountant. While working outside the ghetto with labor brigades, Chana met Mrs. Macenavičienė, who told her: "If you have any troubles, tell me and I will help. It pains me to see what is happening here. Something must be done."
     One evening, at enormous personal risk, after curfew – when Jews were forbidden to be outside – and after bribing the guards, Chana Bravo led Aleksandras Štromas out of the ghetto and brought him to Antanas and Marija Macenavičius.
     From the memoirs of Chana Bravo: Mrs. Štromienė explained to me that leaving the ghetto was by no means a simple matter; it was not an ordinary walk, and that I had to go to the Macenavičius family with Alikas the first time. If they agreed to take him in, everything would be fine. If not, we would return to the ghetto with the child. I agreed. The next day was rainy; it was in March. All of us – Alikas’ sister Mara, Mrs. Štromienė, and I with Alikas – came to the gate on Antrųjų Varnių Street. It was evening, already after curfew. After eight o’clock it was forbidden to move about, especially to leave the ghetto. For me, that order simply did not exist. Alikas and I walked uphill along Žemaičiai Highway. Along the way Alikas asked me whether it was still far. I answered, "Don't talk to me, especially not in Yiddish." When I knocked on the door and Mrs. Marija opened it, frightened, she asked what had happened in the ghetto. I replied that nothing had happened yet, but the Germans were preparing to carry out the „Children's Aktion“, and that this child was the greatest treasure they wished to take from us. I then explained to her and Antanas why I had come. I told them that Alikas spoke Lithuanian fluently, had attended a Lithuanian school, and had not been circumcised. They both fell silent in thought. I also added that Alikas had relatives in America who would reward them generously. Mrs. Marija interrupted me first, emphasizing that this was not about payment but about humanity and the desire to save a child. In the end, they agreed.
     The next stage of Aleksandras Štromas’ rescue had been carefully planned in advance. Assuming the identity of a Russian boy from Maksimovka village in the Oryol Region who had lost his parents, he was supposed to blend into the stream of Russian children wandering along Lithuania’s roads, asking farmers for food and work. However, when Aleksandras explained the entire plan to the Macenavičius family the following morning, they refused to let him go, saying they could not bear such a burden on their conscience because releasing him would mean sending him to his death. Instead, they offered him shelter. Under a new identity as Aleksandras Strimaitis, supposedly the son of Antanas Macenavičius’ friend from Joniškis, Aleksandras lived with the Macenavičius family for nine months, from November 1943 until August 1944.
     Chana Bravo was also the first rescuer of Aviva Fridmanaitė, a five-year-old girl from the Kaunas Ghetto. From the memoirs of Chana Bravo:
     Shortly before the „Children's Aktion“, Mrs. Fridmanienė (the wife of Mrs. Fišienė’s brother), who lived opposite them, came to see me. She had a five- or six-year-old daughter named Aviva. She knew Mrs. Marija, who used to shop at the Fridman family store. Mrs. Fridmanienė asked Mrs. Marija to save her daughter Aviva. After many conversations, Mrs. Marija agreed on the condition that I, Chana, would bring the child myself, because everyone in the neighborhood knew the Fridman family, and Mrs. Fridmanienė looked unmistakably Jewish. Mrs. Marija believed that God was protecting me because I visited them frequently and always returned safely.
     Unfortunately, because of neighbors’ suspicions, the Macenavičius family had to change Aviva’s hiding place immediately. Marija Macenavičienė asked her brother Vladas Jaselskis and his wife Elena, who lived on the outskirts of Kaunas, to hide the girl. The Jaselskis family took Aviva in, but before long their neighbors also realized that they were sheltering a Jewish child. Elena Jaselskienė’s parents, Petras and Petronėlė Brazaitis, lived in a remote village about sixty kilometers from Kaunas in the Vilkaviškis District. Vladas took the girl there on his bicycle. Thus Aviva Fridmanaitė was saved.
     When the Kaunas Ghetto was liquidated, Chana Bravo, together with many other prisoners, was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. After the war ended in 1945, she returned to Lithuania and reunited with surviving relatives. At first they all lived in Kaunas, but later moved to Vilnius.
     Chana Bravo never married and had no children of her own, but she became a true "second mother" and a beloved member of the family to the children of her cousin – Raja and Itzhak Kushnir.
     In 1971, guided by her Zionist convictions, Chana emigrated to Israel, where she continued working as an accountant until her retirement. She remained an important figure in the lives of Itzhak and Raja Kushnir and, after they started families of their own, devoted many years to helping raise their children.
     For many years Chana Bravo also maintained close ties with Aleksandras Štromas, whom she had rescued and who later became a world-renowned politologist. She corresponded with Aleksandras’ sister Margaret Kagan and was loved and deeply respected by all members of the Štromas family.
     Thanks to Chana Bravo’s efforts, Antanas and Marija Macenavičius were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1976 and were awarded Lithuania’s Life Saving Cross in 2003. Elena and Vladas Jaselskis were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1977, and Elena Jaselskienė was awarded the Life Saving Cross in 1995.
     Chana Bravo lived a remarkable and meaningful life. She passed away at the age of 95 on July 16, 2009, and was buried in Kfar Saba, Israel. In 2026, in recognition of risking her life to rescue the children of the Kaunas Ghetto –Aleksandras Štromas and Aviva Fridmanaitė – Chana Bravo was posthumously awarded the Lithuanian state decoration, the Life Saving Cross.