rescuers of jews

At the beginning of 1944 Lea Port together with a group of other Jews, who fled from various ghettos, was hiding in the forests near the village Skovagaliai, Alytus County. Among them was also Shmuel Ingel, who would later become her husband. On the verge of physical collapse from hunger, Lead decided to seek refuge in the village, and chose to knock on the door of a house at random and ask for food. The door was opened by Elena Ivanauskiene, a poor peasant woman. She was deaf mute. Seeing a young woman shivering with cold in rags, she motioned her in. Elena agreed to take her friend Shmuel Ingel as well. Fearing that her husband would object to this act of rescue, Elena Ivanauskiene decided not to tell him that Lea and Shmuel were Jewish, while her children, Gedrute and Gintautas, knew the secret and were full partners in saving the couple. Elena and her children provided to all the needs of the two Jews, and when the Germans began hunting down Jews hiding in the village, they moved Lea and Shmuel to a temporary hiding place in the woods where they waited for the arrival of the Russians.