rescuers of jews
Marčiulionienė Valė
JURGIS MARČIULIONIS
VALĖ MARČIULIONIENĖ
Valė and Jurgis Marčiulionis lived in Kaunas. Valė worked as a medical nurse in one of the city’s orphanages; Jurgis was employed at the local mill. Towards the end of 1943, Berta Shmuilovich, Valė’s Jewish classmate from medical school, approached her. Shmuilovich was a prisoner in the Kaunas ghetto; her neighbours included a young couple, Solomon and Lea Elyashevich, and their 18-month-old daughter, Asya. After the “Children’s Action” in the Šiauliai ghetto, the Elyasheviches feared that the Germans would do the same in Kaunas and were looking for non-Jews to shelter their baby. The childless Marčiulionis’s told Shmuilovich that they would take the Jewish child under their care, on the condition that if neither of her parents survived, they would keep the girl and raise her as Lithuanian and Catholic. Thus, one winter's day at the beginning of 1944, a black-haired toddler appeared at the Marčiulionis' home. Her name was changed to Aldona, and she was presented as Valė’s niece, whose mother was sick and unable to take care of her. "Aldona" became accustomed to her new "parents," who loved her dearly and fulfilled all her wishes. From time to time, Valė would meet with Shmuilovich at her workplace in the city and tell her about the development of their young ward. As the Red Army approached Kaunas, the Germans began the liquidation of the ghetto: the remaining several hundred prisoners were loaded into cattle cars taking them to the West.
Lea Elyashevich managed to escape from the train platform and spent the last days before liberation in hiding. At the end of August 1944, Elyashevich contacted the Marčiulionis’s, but it took several more months before she was able to secure a job and suitable lodgings and take Asya back. The Marčiulionis’s found it difficult to part from the girl they already considered their daughter, but faithfully returned her to her real mother. When Elyashevich found out that her husband had survived the Dachau concentration camp, she and Asya left for the West where they were reunited with Solomon Elyashevich. The family spent a few years in German DP camps, waiting for their emigration visas. In 1951, they immigrated to the US. Asya Berger never met her rescuers again, although her parents told her about their crucial role in her survival. On August 20, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Valė and Jurgis Marčiulionis as Righteous Among the Nations.
(Yad Vashem)
VALĖ MARČIULIONIENĖ
Valė and Jurgis Marčiulionis lived in Kaunas. Valė worked as a medical nurse in one of the city’s orphanages; Jurgis was employed at the local mill. Towards the end of 1943, Berta Shmuilovich, Valė’s Jewish classmate from medical school, approached her. Shmuilovich was a prisoner in the Kaunas ghetto; her neighbours included a young couple, Solomon and Lea Elyashevich, and their 18-month-old daughter, Asya. After the “Children’s Action” in the Šiauliai ghetto, the Elyasheviches feared that the Germans would do the same in Kaunas and were looking for non-Jews to shelter their baby. The childless Marčiulionis’s told Shmuilovich that they would take the Jewish child under their care, on the condition that if neither of her parents survived, they would keep the girl and raise her as Lithuanian and Catholic. Thus, one winter's day at the beginning of 1944, a black-haired toddler appeared at the Marčiulionis' home. Her name was changed to Aldona, and she was presented as Valė’s niece, whose mother was sick and unable to take care of her. "Aldona" became accustomed to her new "parents," who loved her dearly and fulfilled all her wishes. From time to time, Valė would meet with Shmuilovich at her workplace in the city and tell her about the development of their young ward. As the Red Army approached Kaunas, the Germans began the liquidation of the ghetto: the remaining several hundred prisoners were loaded into cattle cars taking them to the West.
Lea Elyashevich managed to escape from the train platform and spent the last days before liberation in hiding. At the end of August 1944, Elyashevich contacted the Marčiulionis’s, but it took several more months before she was able to secure a job and suitable lodgings and take Asya back. The Marčiulionis’s found it difficult to part from the girl they already considered their daughter, but faithfully returned her to her real mother. When Elyashevich found out that her husband had survived the Dachau concentration camp, she and Asya left for the West where they were reunited with Solomon Elyashevich. The family spent a few years in German DP camps, waiting for their emigration visas. In 1951, they immigrated to the US. Asya Berger never met her rescuers again, although her parents told her about their crucial role in her survival. On August 20, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Valė and Jurgis Marčiulionis as Righteous Among the Nations.
(Yad Vashem)