Fruma Vitkinaitė-Kučinskienė about Lidija
“The day came when the streets of Kaunas became empty, and neither people nor transport remained. Natasha Fugalevičiūtė took me from the orphanage, fearing that we might be taken to Germany. She decided to take me to Kulautuva, a resort area approximately 20 kilometres away from Kaunas in the Kaunas District. Her sister Lidija Golubovienė lived there and she was hiding many Jews. I remember when we came down the pier, they tried to catch us and we hid in the Jesuit church. Finally we got on the last raft on the River Nemunas, sailing towards Klaipėda. When we got on the raft, Nataša told me that I had to be on one end of it and she would be on the other. That’s how we reached Zapyškis.
My last stage of hiding started in Kulautuva, at the place of Natasha Fugalevičiūtė’s sister Lidija Golubovienė. When we came with Natasha to Kulautuva, we found Rivka Shmukler, Irutė-Rosian Bagriansky, and a group of other Jewish and Russian children there. During the entire war, Golubovienė hid Meishele Lafer, a Jewish boy, whom everybody called Kolia. He remained Kolia for the rest of his life. He is called Kolia in Israel, too. At Golubovienė’s place I was relieved as I was in my familiar environment, close to my Rivka.
We rushed with Natasha to Kulautuva thinking that it would be safer there. However, it was quite the contrary: the Germans were retreating on the road crossing Lidija Golubovienė’s farmstead and later the Russian army came. Russians were already on the other side of the River Nemunas and machinegun fire was coming from one side of the Nemunas towards the other. Partisans would come to Lidija Golubovienė’s place and several paratroopers found their refuge here. Ariadna Lukashova, who was in contact with partisans, and her sister Lena also used to come to Lidija’s place. There were also raids but someone had warned us about them. One night a raid began as I and Rosian were left sleeping in our narrow bed. The Germans made their inspection, pointing their flashlights at our faces, shining it in my face, then Rosian’s, but did not suspect that both of us were Jewish. Rosian, like me, was blond. Although everything ended happily, we got very scared. The others managed to run away and hide in the tall nettles growing near the house.
When the front was very close and it became dangerous to stay in the farmstead, we all went to the forest. We took two cows, carried loafs of bread and shooting began from the other side of the River Nemunas. There was a meadow full of late strawberries that were ripe in the forest. We were running and I was told many times: ‘Get down!’ I would get down and hide my head, like an ostrich, under Rivka’s body, feeling safe this way. After that stress I could not say a full sentence in any of the languages I spoke. One word was Lithuanian, another one was Russian and a third one would be German. Rivka was scared for me.
In the forest, we made arbours, and we slept on loafs of bread and one morning, when I woke up, I learned that I do not have to hide any more. After all of this long hiding it was unbelievable, I could not understand that the danger was over. I still see the image of Lidija Golubovienė’s barn, where we had been hiding so many times. Once, when we were in that barn, the Germans came and asked something, but Rivka showed that she did not understand German and replied in sign language. After many years have passed, I still go there and see the barn, which is still standing.
From the 4th book Hands Bringing Life and Bread
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum
