rescuers of jews
Laucevičius Pranas
Pranas LAUCEVIČIUS (1911–1944)
Pranas Laucevičius and his wife Ruth Gurvitch were killed on October 5, 1944 in Kairiškiai village, near Tryškiai
Testimony of Jakov Gurvitch, Ruth Gurvitch-Laucevičienė’s brother:
The fate of my sister Ruth and her husband Pranas was tragic. Before the liquidation of the Telšiai Ghetto, Ruth started working in the “Alka” museum in Telšiai. She knew Pranas Laucevičius from the years of gymnasium. He loved Ruth and decided to save her in the critical moment of her life. 22 December, he took her from the museum. They secretly got married and moved to Laižuva not far from Latvian border where Pranas worked as a teacher. November 1942, their son Telesforas was born. Pranas gave the baby to his mother and sister Jadvyga in Telšiai. The same year, while Ruth and Pranas were still in Laižuva, someone recognised Ruth and she wrote a letter of farewell to her mother. But somehow they managed to escape. In 1944, Ruth and Pranas moved to Kairiškės village near Tryškiai. Pranas started working in a school again and Ruth helped him. In the last days of the war, when the Germans were retreating, Ruth was recognised by a local German, who had studied together with Ruth in Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University in 1939. The locals knew about this terrible tragedy very well – Ruth and Pranas were executed on the bank of the Virvyčia River on the last day of the German occupation.
Pranas Laucevičius and his wife Ruth Gurvitch were killed on October 5, 1944 in Kairiškiai village, near Tryškiai
Testimony of Jakov Gurvitch, Ruth Gurvitch-Laucevičienė’s brother:
The fate of my sister Ruth and her husband Pranas was tragic. Before the liquidation of the Telšiai Ghetto, Ruth started working in the “Alka” museum in Telšiai. She knew Pranas Laucevičius from the years of gymnasium. He loved Ruth and decided to save her in the critical moment of her life. 22 December, he took her from the museum. They secretly got married and moved to Laižuva not far from Latvian border where Pranas worked as a teacher. November 1942, their son Telesforas was born. Pranas gave the baby to his mother and sister Jadvyga in Telšiai. The same year, while Ruth and Pranas were still in Laižuva, someone recognised Ruth and she wrote a letter of farewell to her mother. But somehow they managed to escape. In 1944, Ruth and Pranas moved to Kairiškės village near Tryškiai. Pranas started working in a school again and Ruth helped him. In the last days of the war, when the Germans were retreating, Ruth was recognised by a local German, who had studied together with Ruth in Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University in 1939. The locals knew about this terrible tragedy very well – Ruth and Pranas were executed on the bank of the Virvyčia River on the last day of the German occupation.