Rescuers of Jews

       Juozapas Markevičius with his wife Elena and their seven children – sons Romualdas, Jonas, and Vladas, and daughters Marijona, Valerija, Regina, and Jadvyga – lived in the village of Trinapolis, about 7 km from Subačius. Juozapas Markevičius was well acquainted with Subačius merchant Volfas Kušneris, whose house stood near the Subačius railway station. Whenever he ran short of goods or wished to buy something new, Juozapas would visit Volfas Kušneris. When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania and the persecution of Jews began, a ghetto was established near the Subačius railway station, where Volfas Kušneris, his wife, and their children Sonia, Asia, and Josef were imprisoned. Upon learning that the Kušneris family was in the ghetto, Juozapas Markevičius brought them a sack of flour and offered his help. While it was still possible to leave the ghetto, Volfas Kušneris visited the Markevičius homestead and asked for help. Juozapas agreed to shelter the Kušneris family and, together with his sons Romas, Jonas, and Vladas, built hiding places in the barn, the forest, and the cowshed.
       Tragically, the Kušneris family could not avoid loss – when elderly people and children unable to work were murdered in the Ilčiūnai forest, Volfas’s wife was also killed. Already staying with the Markevičius family, Volfas Kušneris secretly went to Subačius several times, managing to rescue from the ghetto his children – 13-year-old Asia, 18-year-old Sonia, and 7-year-old Josef. They also brought along three companions in misfortune. Šalomas Šorenzonas, transferred from the Vilnius ghetto to a labor camp in Panevėžys, knew nothing of the possibility to hide with the Markevičius family. However, Sonia, who was close to Šalomas, left him a letter with directions on where to seek help. The letter also mentioned priests in Subačius. One day in 1943, Sh. Šorenzonas and a fellow prisoner, Špindelis – who spoke Lithuanian well – escaped from the labor camp and reached the Subačius parish house. At that time, priests Vincentas Beinorius and Povilas Mikalajūnas sheltered and fed them for two days, and then explained how to reach the homestead of Juozapas Markevičius in Trinapolis through the forest. Emerging from the forest, Šalomas Šorenzonas and Špindelis saw Juozapas’s son Jonas tending a fire. Jonas gave the fugitives food, spoke with his father, and the Markevičius family decided to shelter them.
       Knowing well Simas Šavelytė from Viešintiškės, Vladas Markevičius resolved to rescue her from the Panevėžys labor camp and invite her to hide at his father’s homestead. When Sima came, there were already eight people in hiding with the Markevičius family.
       The older children of Elena and Juozapas – Marijona, Romualdas, Jonas, Vladas, and Valerija – despite the great danger, took an active part in helping those in hiding. Marijona, already married and living near the Radžiūnai railway station, assisted both the Jews and her large family by baking large amounts of bread and providing milk. It was not easy, as they had to care for nine people in hiding. Jonas Markevičius later recalled: “A large troop was formed – 18 mouths needed food. My sister baked bread, I had to carry milk and cook food in the bushes.”
       After staying for about two months with the Markevičius family, Šalomas Šorenzonas told Vladas that he had previously posed as a Pole named Stasekas, doing farm work for peasants, and now wished to help the family in return. Vladas found him work in a neighboring village. Whenever suspicions arose that he might be a Jew, Šalomas moved from place to place, but from time to time he would still meet Vladas and visit the Markevičius family in Trinapolis.
       In 1943, the authorities learned that Jews were hiding with the Markevičius family. Valerija Markevičiūtė-Stanevičienė later recalled: “In mid-March the weather was cold, and the people hiding in the barn bunker were no warmer. One night we moved them to the cowshed (closer to the animals). We hid the traces of the bunker in the barn. That very day, a wagonload of armed Germans arrived. Seeing them, I thought we had only a few minutes left to live. I was 16 years old then. One German went toward the horses, the others straight into the barn. They searched for a long time, but finding nothing, they left. They got back into the wagon and drove away. Fortunately, they did not enter the cowshed.” (From: “Kupiškėnai žydų gelbėtojai,” ed. Aušra Jonušytė, 2024).
       In Trinapolis, at the farmstead of Juozapas Markevičius, the Jews remained until December 24, 1943. When news reached Juozapas from Subačius that rumors were spreading in town about Jews being sheltered at their farm, fearing a raid, the family transferred some of the people to trusted neighbors or relatives. Only Volfas Kušneris and his daughter Asia remained with the Markevičius family until late July 1944. Sima Šavelytė was temporarily sheltered by Marijona Markevičiūtė-Rytmetienė and later by priest Vincentas Beinorius at the Subačius parish house.
       After the German retreat and the reoccupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, the partisan resistance arose. Valerija Markevičiūtė (later Stanevičienė) became a partisan liaison. The partisans used the same underground bunker where Jews had once been hidden, and on several occasions visited Juozapas Markevičius for food. The NKVD eventually tracked them down, and on July 22, 1946, Juozapas Markevičius was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp. At the same time, Valerija Markevičiūtė-Stanevičienė and Romas Markevičius were also repressed. The other family members managed to avoid deportation. Juozapas’s sentence was later reduced, but he only returned from exile in early 1955.
       From the time of Lithuania’s independence, Šalomas Šorenzonas sought to find Juozapas Markevičius and his family. He applied to Yad Vashem for recognition of the Markevičius family as Righteous Among the Nations. In 1991, Juozapas’s son Jonas, together with other Lithuanian rescuers recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, was invited to Israel. He took part in events there, stayed for two weeks, and after 46 years reunited with Šalomas Šorenzonas and his family.
       In 1991, as many as seven members of the Markevičius family – Juozapas and Elena, and their elder children Romualdas, Jonas, Vladas, Marijona, and Valerija – were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Most members of this family have also been awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross in Lithuania.