Rescuers of Jews

Lapis Justinas

JUSTINAS LAPIS

     During the Nazi Occupation, Father Justinas Lapis of Šiauliai’s St. George Parish became an active participant in operations to save Jews in the city of Šiauliai.
     Justinas Lapis was born on February 26, 1884, in the village of Kapstatai, Kretinga district. He studied at Palanga Progymnasium and, from 1901, at the St. Petersburg Seminary. Ordained a priest in 1907, he served in Russia until 1919. Upon returning to Lithuania, he was appointed vicar of Šiauliai’s St. Peter and Paul Church. On December 29, 1919, Bishop Pranciškus Karevičius appointed Father Lapis the first rector of St. George’s Church. From 1923, he served as pastor of the St. George Parish, religion teacher at the local high school, and chaplain of a military regiment. He was actively involved in pastoral and charitable work, founding 13 Catholic organizations within the parish, several of which he led, including the Catholic Women’s Association.
     Father Lapis was also notable for his civic engagement: he was a long-time member of Šiauliai City Council and, from 1931 to 1940, chairman of the Social Welfare Commission. He was especially devoted to organizing charitable efforts and participated in the activities of the Ethnographic Society. From 1957, he served as an altarist in Šiauliai. He passed away on April 23, 1967, in Šiauliai and was buried in the churchyard of St. George’s Church.
     At the beginning of the German occupation, when mass persecution and killings of Jews began in Šiauliai, Father Lapis, along with community representatives J. Orlauskas and D. Jasaitis, approached Schropfer, the head officer of the Šiauliai District, requesting an end to the brutal executions. When Schropfer abruptly terminated the conversation and issued threats, the same group later appealed to Gebietskommissar Gewecke, again advocating for the cessation of the killings.
     After the establishment of the Šiauliai Ghetto, Father Lapis became an active participant in efforts to rescue Jewish children. He baptized children smuggled out of the ghetto and helped them obtain forged documents. Names, surnames, ages, and places of birth of deceased children were selected from parish registry books to create authentic-seeming documentation. Care was taken to match the recorded age with the actual age of the child receiving the papers. Father Lapis worked closely with the renowned rescuer of Jewish children, Dr. Janina Luinienė, who involved a large network of people in these efforts. Children removed from the ghetto were hidden in the Šiauliai Hospital, as well as in orphanages in Vaiguva or Kuršėnai. Constant efforts were made to find families willing to hide these children for longer periods. Having proper documents significantly reduced the risks for both the children and their rescuers.

     One testimony of Father Lapis’s assistance comes from Esthera Ton (formerly Esthera Ziv), a Jewish survivor, regarding help for herself and her daughter Chaviva. Originally from Kuršėnai, Esthera married Jechezkel Ziv in 1939, and their daughter Chaviva was born in 1940. After her husband was killed at the beginning of the German occupation, Esthera and her daughter were confined to the Šiauliai Ghetto. In 1943, she managed to hide her daughter outside the ghetto. In her memoir, Fragments of My Life, Esthera Ton recalls:
     I sought help from Mr. Leibovicius after the “Children’s Aktion” in November 1943, when brutal Ukrainian collaborators narrowly missed discovering the basement where Perale and the children were hiding. They had to be removed from the ghetto, but what to do after the catastrophe? Mr. Leibovicius directed me to the chief priest of the Šiauliai region, Father Lapis.
     He helped several Jewish women find shelter in nearby convents. The priest received me kindly but said he first needed to verify with whom he was speaking. He agreed to meet again the following week. On the chosen day, he welcomed me warmly, seated me before his desk, and asked why I had come. Hearing it was about rescuing children, he regretfully said he could not help find a hiding place but could provide me with birth certificates of deceased children. I received two documents—one for Chaviva and another for myself, just in case. Father Lapis was a man of great knowledge who enjoyed discussing various topics with me. Among other things, he shared his story and made it clear that his assistance was driven by compassion for people in distress, not a desire to convert Jews.


     Father Lapis’s role in rescuing Jews in Šiauliai is widely acknowledged in the memories of other Jewish rescuers and prominent public figures. Jackus Sondeckis, the long-time mayor of Šiauliai and a Righteous Among the Nations honoree in 1996, wrote in his memoir Stations of My Life: In Šiauliai, perhaps the most help for Jews came from Sofija and Dr. Domas Jasaitis and Father Justinas Lapis. [...] Small children were sent to Father Lapis. He baptized them and sent them to orphanages or the children’s hospital, which was managed by Dr. Luinienė.
     Father Lapis is also mentioned as an active Jewish rescuer in the memoirs (“Through the Highways of Life”) of Peliksas Bugailiškis, the former chairman of the Šiauliai District Court.
     In 1946, a report submitted to the Lithuanian Activist Front (VLIK) by Sofija Lukauskaitė-Jasaitienė highlighted Father Lapis among those rescuing Jews in Šiauliai: ”Among those in Šiauliai known to me for their efforts to rescue Jews were the family of the late lawyer K. Venclauskas, Dr. Luinienė, Father Lapis…”
     In a 1977 letter to Father Juozas Prunskis, D. Gaidelienė wrote: ”To conclude, I would like to add that Dr. Peisachavičius [later Dr. William Pace] and many others among the Jews of Šiauliai were also helped by Danutė Venclauskaitė, Father Lapis, pastor of St. Peter’s Parish, who even baptized Jews as Catholics [...].”

     For his early and courageous interventions on behalf of Jews in Šiauliai and his role in saving Esthera Ton, her daughter Chaviva, and many others, Father Justinas Lapis was awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross state award in 2024.

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