Rescuers of Jews

       Before the war, Icikas and Ida Kalamickas and their young sons Jokūbas and Dovydas lived in the village of Sepijoniškės, Žiežmariai parish, making a living from farming and livestock trading. The Kalamickas, who had lived in the same place for generations, knew their Lithuanian and Polish neighbors well and interacted and cooperated with them.
       From the testimony of Jokūbas and Dovydas Kalamickas: “In 1941, when the Germans occupied Lithuania, our family did not manage to flee east and remained in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. When the roundups, arrests, and shootings of Jews began, we started hiding with acquaintances of our parents who were farmers, and, fortunately, we survived the entire three-year occupation, experiencing danger and fear every day. During those three dreadful years we changed hiding places more than 70 times in villages and farmsteads, forests, potato storage pits, and dug cellars.”
       Kalamickas, his wife Ida, their sons Jokūbas and Dovydas, Ida Kalamickienė’s two sisters – Raja Berkman-Šlom with her little son Emanuel, and Šeina Berkman-Šadur – were brought one night from the village of Guroniai to Klėriškės to Julija and Kazimieras Dimša by Feliksas Bušauskas, who until then had been hiding the Kalamickas. But after neighbors became suspicious, they were forced to change their hiding place.
       Julija and Kazimieras Dimša’ family had seven children: three daughters and four sons. Everyone in the household worked on the farm, and seasonal laborers were also hired. The family lived off the agricultural products they raised, were on good terms with all their neighbors, and knew many Jews of Žiežmariai, including the Kalamickas family from Sepijoniškės. The Dimša family provided clothing and food to the Kalamickas even before they moved into the old house on the farm. After arriving at the Dimša one winter night, they stayed there until spring, but when rumors spread that someone was living with the Dimša, the Kalamickas again had to change their hiding place.
       While hiding on the Dimša farm, the Kalamickas were helped by all members of the Dimša family: Julija, Kazimieras, and their children. Daughters Antanina and Gabrielė carried food and kept watch on the surroundings.
       In 2008 Julija and Kazimieras Dimša and their daughter Antanina Palčiauskienė, and in 2025 Gabrielė Prakelienė, were awarded the Life Saviour’s Cross for helping the Kalamickas family. In 2009 Yad Vashem recognized Julija Dimšienė, Kazimieras Dimša, and daughters Antanina Dimšaitė (later Palčiauskienė) and Gabrielė Dimšaitė (later Prakelienė) as Righteous Among the Nations.