rescuers of jews
Kęsminienė (Šmitaitė) Zofija
When the Germans occupied Lithuania the Telsiai resident Reizl Shochot with her children Chaim and Jehoshua were imprisoned in Rainiai and Geruliai camps, later in Telsiai Ghetto. From the end of 1941, after the Telsiai Ghetto was liquidated and till the liberation in October 1944 Reizl Shochot with her children were hiding in the Telsiai region and in the town Telsiai.
Domicele Pagojute, the former children’s nannie, was the main rescuer of this family during all the war. She managed to find reliable people, her relatives or good friends. Thanks their extraordinary help, dedication and cleverness Reizl Shochot and her sons Chaim and Jehoshua survived.
Many Lithuanian families participated in the rescue process of this family. Most of the Shochot family rescuers were already awarded with the Life Saviour’s Crosses. Three families of the Reizl Shochot’s and her son Chaim’s rescuers were presented to 2011 Life Saviour’s Cross Award ceremony. Jehoshua Shochot’s (born 1933, the only now alive member of this family, living in Israel) testifies that they are: Darbutas, Gaurilavicius, Simutis families and Zofija Kesminiene (Smitaite), the rescuer of Jehoshua Shochot himself.
Zofija Smitaite (later Kesminiene) lost her mother when she was a little child. She was raised and educated by her mother’s sister Kazimiera Gruiniene who lived in the village Vygantiskiai, Telsiai district.
A teenager Zofija used to work to farmers. In the years 1939–1944 she worked as cow-girl and half maid-servant at the farm that Juozapas Butvydas managed together with two sisters Rupeikaite – Veronika and Kazimiera. The farm was in a near-by the village Kalnenai. At this farm on December 1941 and January 1942 several Jews were hiding: two elderly women and one younger woman with a little daughter lived in the house and Reizl Shochot with her sons Jehoshua and Chaim were hiding in the barn in a packed with flax Jauja. In that Jauja the Shochots spent about four weeks. They could go out from this hiding place only at night. The sisters Rupeikaite or Zofija Smitaite used to bring the food for them.
From Jehoshua Shochot reminiscence:
The rest four Jewish women who also were hiding at the Butvydas farm did not know that we are hiding in the Jauja. One day somebody denounced to the authority that Butvydas is hiding Jews. White-banded men came to find and arrest the Jews. One of elderly women, when she saw the white-banded began to run to the direction of the barn where our hiding place – the Jauja was. The white-banded began to run after the Jewish woman to catch her. Zose Smitaite saw what is happening and understood that if the Jewish woman will go in the Jauja the white-banded will find there the Jewish woman and us. In a moment she pulled herself together and decided not to give the Jewish woman to go into the Jauja. As a young girl running faster than the white-banded, she outrun him and stopped the Jewish woman at the entrance to the Jauja. The Jewish woman had already opened the door of the Jauja. The white-banded saw the open door of the Jauja but he thougt that the Jauja is full of flax.
The white-banded took the Jewish women to the house. The white-banded men found the rest Jewish women (the other elderly woman and the woman with her little daughter), all four were taken to Telsiai. I do not know exactly where and when they were shot-dead....
Only thanks to Zofija Smitaite (Kesminiene) cleverness and decisiveness this dayat the Butvydas farm the hiding members of Shochot family – Reizl Shochot and her sons. Jehoshua and Chaim were rescued from inevitable death.
Domicele Pagojute, the former children’s nannie, was the main rescuer of this family during all the war. She managed to find reliable people, her relatives or good friends. Thanks their extraordinary help, dedication and cleverness Reizl Shochot and her sons Chaim and Jehoshua survived.
Many Lithuanian families participated in the rescue process of this family. Most of the Shochot family rescuers were already awarded with the Life Saviour’s Crosses. Three families of the Reizl Shochot’s and her son Chaim’s rescuers were presented to 2011 Life Saviour’s Cross Award ceremony. Jehoshua Shochot’s (born 1933, the only now alive member of this family, living in Israel) testifies that they are: Darbutas, Gaurilavicius, Simutis families and Zofija Kesminiene (Smitaite), the rescuer of Jehoshua Shochot himself.
Zofija Smitaite (later Kesminiene) lost her mother when she was a little child. She was raised and educated by her mother’s sister Kazimiera Gruiniene who lived in the village Vygantiskiai, Telsiai district.
A teenager Zofija used to work to farmers. In the years 1939–1944 she worked as cow-girl and half maid-servant at the farm that Juozapas Butvydas managed together with two sisters Rupeikaite – Veronika and Kazimiera. The farm was in a near-by the village Kalnenai. At this farm on December 1941 and January 1942 several Jews were hiding: two elderly women and one younger woman with a little daughter lived in the house and Reizl Shochot with her sons Jehoshua and Chaim were hiding in the barn in a packed with flax Jauja. In that Jauja the Shochots spent about four weeks. They could go out from this hiding place only at night. The sisters Rupeikaite or Zofija Smitaite used to bring the food for them.
From Jehoshua Shochot reminiscence:
The rest four Jewish women who also were hiding at the Butvydas farm did not know that we are hiding in the Jauja. One day somebody denounced to the authority that Butvydas is hiding Jews. White-banded men came to find and arrest the Jews. One of elderly women, when she saw the white-banded began to run to the direction of the barn where our hiding place – the Jauja was. The white-banded began to run after the Jewish woman to catch her. Zose Smitaite saw what is happening and understood that if the Jewish woman will go in the Jauja the white-banded will find there the Jewish woman and us. In a moment she pulled herself together and decided not to give the Jewish woman to go into the Jauja. As a young girl running faster than the white-banded, she outrun him and stopped the Jewish woman at the entrance to the Jauja. The Jewish woman had already opened the door of the Jauja. The white-banded saw the open door of the Jauja but he thougt that the Jauja is full of flax.
The white-banded took the Jewish women to the house. The white-banded men found the rest Jewish women (the other elderly woman and the woman with her little daughter), all four were taken to Telsiai. I do not know exactly where and when they were shot-dead....
Only thanks to Zofija Smitaite (Kesminiene) cleverness and decisiveness this dayat the Butvydas farm the hiding members of Shochot family – Reizl Shochot and her sons. Jehoshua and Chaim were rescued from inevitable death.