Rescuers of Jews
Puras Vincas
ALEKSANDRAS PURAS
VINCAS PURAS
During the German occupation, Aleksandras Puras maintained contacts with the Kaunas Ghetto underground. He also brought food into the ghetto. At the request of the head of the Kaunas Ghetto firefighters’ team, Maksim Abramovich (Abramov), Puras organized a hiding place in Veršvos (near Vilijampolė), on the land of Kazimieras Preišogalavičius, not far from the latter's farmhouse. At the beginning of 1944, another hiding place was set up in the village of Netoniai (Kaunas district), in the barn of Aleksandras' brother Vincas Puras’s family. From the autumn of 1943 until the liberation in July 1944, Maksim Abramovich and his wife Yevgenia, Hirsh Levin, Simon Kaplan and his wife, Fira Kupritz, Pilvinskas and a few others were hiding in these shelters. Both Puras families provided their wards with food and other necessities. Through Aleksandras Puras, communication was also maintained between those in hiding and those who remained in the ghetto.
The rescue was further complicated by the retreating Germans setting up headquarters in the home of Vincas and Justina Puras at the end of the war. During that period, it was extremely difficult to take food to the shelter, but despite the danger, food still reached the people in care.
In 1993, both Aleksandras and Vincas Puras were awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross.
VINCAS PURAS
During the German occupation, Aleksandras Puras maintained contacts with the Kaunas Ghetto underground. He also brought food into the ghetto. At the request of the head of the Kaunas Ghetto firefighters’ team, Maksim Abramovich (Abramov), Puras organized a hiding place in Veršvos (near Vilijampolė), on the land of Kazimieras Preišogalavičius, not far from the latter's farmhouse. At the beginning of 1944, another hiding place was set up in the village of Netoniai (Kaunas district), in the barn of Aleksandras' brother Vincas Puras’s family. From the autumn of 1943 until the liberation in July 1944, Maksim Abramovich and his wife Yevgenia, Hirsh Levin, Simon Kaplan and his wife, Fira Kupritz, Pilvinskas and a few others were hiding in these shelters. Both Puras families provided their wards with food and other necessities. Through Aleksandras Puras, communication was also maintained between those in hiding and those who remained in the ghetto.
The rescue was further complicated by the retreating Germans setting up headquarters in the home of Vincas and Justina Puras at the end of the war. During that period, it was extremely difficult to take food to the shelter, but despite the danger, food still reached the people in care.
In 1993, both Aleksandras and Vincas Puras were awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross.