Rescuers of Jews
From Herman Kruk’s diary The Last days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, 25 December 1941 entry:
A propos, about Ms. Ona Šimaitė. Ona Šimaitė is an elderly Lithuanian woman and a public activist since the old times. She often visits her Jewish friends. This time, she visited the library (as she herself has worked as a librarian in the Vilnius University) and the collection of museum valuables. Two days later she wrote a letter to her Jewish friend asking among other things to give her regards to the person who showed her around the library and the museum. She wrote that she was grateful to him and admired his courage and strength in collecting items shunned by everybody during the horrible and difficult times.
From the book Vilner geto 1941–1944 by Abraham Sutzkever:
I had given the most important manuscripts of the Jewish classic Peretz to the Lithuanian journalist Ona Šimaitė in March 1942. She would come to the German office where I was working and take away the packages prepared by me.
/.../ By helping the Jews, she provoked the Germans and was imprisoned by them in a concentration camp...
Abba Kovner (American Lithuanian newspaper Draugas, Chicago, 8 July 1967):
If there are 10 tzadiks in the world, Ona Šimaitė is certainly one of them.
Prof. Markas Petuchauskas, prisoner of the ghetto (“Lietuvos televizija” TV show “Menora”, 11 January 2004):
She used to visit the ghetto museum and the ghetto library as if the ghetto was her second home. She would come to the Vilnius Ghetto theatre performances and shows. And she would watch them with fascination.
/.../ She had a big dream that nations would stop fighting each other for their religious, national or geographical interests and would be united by a common fraternity of the nations.
She was a sworn European – even before the talks of the united Europe as we understand it now and which has been a hot topic nowadays. She was the herald of that European tolerance and reciprocal understanding between the nations. And she did not merely talk about that, but also pursued her mission silently and patiently.
Dov Levin, historian, Israel (Rimantas Stankevičius. Gyvenusi tautos himno dvasia):
At the most horrible time – autumn 1941 – and even more so at the end of the war, there were a few hundred honest Lithuanians who managed to save over a thousand Jews despite the dangers associated with such deeds. One of these honourable Lithuanians is Ona Šimaitė whose name became famous all over the world and who helped elevate the honour of the Lithuanian nation according to the words of the national anthem: “May your children only walk the paths of honesty”.
Andrius Bulota, who visited Šimaitė in her apartment in the Old Town, recalls ("Literatūra ir menas", Nr. 9, Vilnius, 1970 m. vasario 28 d.):
I had heard about her selfless devotion and how she gave moral and material support to the people of the Vilnius Ghetto. From talking with Ona Šimaitė I could see that she was ready to do everything in her power to ease the lives of the ghetto prisoners. During our conversation the door of another room opened, and a five or six-year-old girl entered timidly. Then a dark-haired middle-aged woman came in, greeted us, took the girl back into the room and closed the door.
“Aren’t you afraid? Won’t the Gestapo find out?” I asked at last. Šimaitė only sighed and said after a while: “In the evening these two should be taken out, and at night, if everything goes well, some others will come. I am doing what is in my power. So many people are dying...
A propos, about Ms. Ona Šimaitė. Ona Šimaitė is an elderly Lithuanian woman and a public activist since the old times. She often visits her Jewish friends. This time, she visited the library (as she herself has worked as a librarian in the Vilnius University) and the collection of museum valuables. Two days later she wrote a letter to her Jewish friend asking among other things to give her regards to the person who showed her around the library and the museum. She wrote that she was grateful to him and admired his courage and strength in collecting items shunned by everybody during the horrible and difficult times.
From the book Vilner geto 1941–1944 by Abraham Sutzkever:
I had given the most important manuscripts of the Jewish classic Peretz to the Lithuanian journalist Ona Šimaitė in March 1942. She would come to the German office where I was working and take away the packages prepared by me.
/.../ By helping the Jews, she provoked the Germans and was imprisoned by them in a concentration camp...
Abba Kovner (American Lithuanian newspaper Draugas, Chicago, 8 July 1967):
If there are 10 tzadiks in the world, Ona Šimaitė is certainly one of them.
Prof. Markas Petuchauskas, prisoner of the ghetto (“Lietuvos televizija” TV show “Menora”, 11 January 2004):
She used to visit the ghetto museum and the ghetto library as if the ghetto was her second home. She would come to the Vilnius Ghetto theatre performances and shows. And she would watch them with fascination.
/.../ She had a big dream that nations would stop fighting each other for their religious, national or geographical interests and would be united by a common fraternity of the nations.
She was a sworn European – even before the talks of the united Europe as we understand it now and which has been a hot topic nowadays. She was the herald of that European tolerance and reciprocal understanding between the nations. And she did not merely talk about that, but also pursued her mission silently and patiently.
Dov Levin, historian, Israel (Rimantas Stankevičius. Gyvenusi tautos himno dvasia):
At the most horrible time – autumn 1941 – and even more so at the end of the war, there were a few hundred honest Lithuanians who managed to save over a thousand Jews despite the dangers associated with such deeds. One of these honourable Lithuanians is Ona Šimaitė whose name became famous all over the world and who helped elevate the honour of the Lithuanian nation according to the words of the national anthem: “May your children only walk the paths of honesty”.
Andrius Bulota, who visited Šimaitė in her apartment in the Old Town, recalls ("Literatūra ir menas", Nr. 9, Vilnius, 1970 m. vasario 28 d.):
I had heard about her selfless devotion and how she gave moral and material support to the people of the Vilnius Ghetto. From talking with Ona Šimaitė I could see that she was ready to do everything in her power to ease the lives of the ghetto prisoners. During our conversation the door of another room opened, and a five or six-year-old girl entered timidly. Then a dark-haired middle-aged woman came in, greeted us, took the girl back into the room and closed the door.
“Aren’t you afraid? Won’t the Gestapo find out?” I asked at last. Šimaitė only sighed and said after a while: “In the evening these two should be taken out, and at night, if everything goes well, some others will come. I am doing what is in my power. So many people are dying...