rescuers of jews
Avraham Tory remembers:
I went to visit Paukštys: I offered him to join me and flee Lithuania. I warned him that under the Soviet government he, as a priest, would not be allowed to continue with his humanist activities and foster national traditions, and that he would be exiled to Siberia sooner or later. That had already happened to other Lithuanian activists. The same day, 22 February 1945, Benjamin Friedman – former leader of the Maccabi – informed me that I myself had been blacklisted for exile to Siberia and that I had to flee immediately leaving Pnina and Shulamit behind. I promised Paukštys to take him to the Palestine itself, but that noble man refused to leave his parish and said he would walk the path he had chosen despite the perils and the risk of exile. He said he had not succumbed to the Nazis and he would not succumb to the Bolsheviks. A few months later, he was exiled to Siberia for 10 years. Before parting, we embraced and burst into tears.
Avraham Tory. „Kauno getas: diena po dienos“. Vilnius, 2000
I went to visit Paukštys: I offered him to join me and flee Lithuania. I warned him that under the Soviet government he, as a priest, would not be allowed to continue with his humanist activities and foster national traditions, and that he would be exiled to Siberia sooner or later. That had already happened to other Lithuanian activists. The same day, 22 February 1945, Benjamin Friedman – former leader of the Maccabi – informed me that I myself had been blacklisted for exile to Siberia and that I had to flee immediately leaving Pnina and Shulamit behind. I promised Paukštys to take him to the Palestine itself, but that noble man refused to leave his parish and said he would walk the path he had chosen despite the perils and the risk of exile. He said he had not succumbed to the Nazis and he would not succumb to the Bolsheviks. A few months later, he was exiled to Siberia for 10 years. Before parting, we embraced and burst into tears.
Avraham Tory. „Kauno getas: diena po dienos“. Vilnius, 2000