rescuers of jews

IT HAPPENED IN PANEVĖŽYS

There were quite a few brave and courageous people in Panevėžys. Here's what Srolis Gutmanas tells in the newspaper "Panevėžio tiesa" (March 3, 1963):

In the spring of 1943, around the month of April, a large group of people from the Vilnius Ghetto was brought to Panevėžys.
It turns out we were needed for construction and repair work at the Staniūnai manor, which the Nazis gifted to Gebitskomissar Neumann for his merits in introducing the "new order" in Lithuania.
They housed us, men and women, in barracks on Sodai Street, without light or heat; there were no windows, stoves, or doors. The occupiers and their collaborators demanded only labour from us, without thinking at all about food and clothing for us. After a while, we could barely stand on our feet.
We sought help from the locals, and they helped us as much as they could. That's how I got to know the family of Jonas Arimavičius, who lived at 57 Klaipėda Street.
The first time we visited, Jonas Arimavičius and his wife Kotryna welcomed us with open hearts, gave us food to eat, a place to wash, and even provided food to take with us.
I wasn't the only one who visited the Arimavičius family; other unfortunate friends, as well as Soviet prisoners of war, whom these people found a good, sincere word and food for, also came there.
I cannot forget one incident. Kotryna Arimavičienė threw a whole basket of bread to passing prisoners of war. The bread reached the prisoners, but a guard rushed to the woman and started beating her with the butt of his rifle.
It was difficult for the Arimavičius family with several children - their elder son Stasys was about 12 years old at the time - to make ends meet, but they shared their last bite with us.
Several months passed like this. All the children knew about us, but none of them betrayed us; sometimes they themselves brought food. Usually, the eldest - Stasys - did this.
Suddenly, one autumn day, we found out that we were to be killed the next day or the day after. Many people fled, including me. Again, we turned to the Arimavičius family, and they didn't refuse. They took in and hid three of us: a man from Vilnius, Aronas Raznoščikas, his wife Helda, and me. When the danger increased, they helped us dig a hiding place near their house, where we lived for a long time. Our friend Leizer Gurvičius was taken in by Jadvyga Makasejevienė, who lived on Šiauliai Street.
Later, Arimavičius, finding his deceased brother's passport, gave it to me and recommended me for a job with a miller. After a week, it became dangerous to work there, and again Arimavičius found me a place. This time in the village of Radžiūnai, near the town of Subačius, with his acquaintance Jonas Kriaučiūnas. After a few months, bourgeois nationalists found out that I was hiding in the village. They failed to capture me. Kriaučiūnas sent me to the village of Kinderiai, and after a few months, I returned to Radžiūnai, where in the summer of 1944, I awaited the Red Army.
Today, I am a pensioner, I am 72 years old, but I am grateful for my life to a good, sincere, and sensitive person, Jonas Arimavičius, and his family from Panevėžys.

From: "Ir be ginklo kariai" (Soldiers Without Weapons), compiled by S. Binkienė, publishing house "Mintis", Vilnius, 1967