THE ALLEY OF THE RIGHTEOUS: Zenonas Grigaitis, Adelė Žiužnienė, Jeronimas Žiužnys

 

Adelė and Jeronimas Žiužnys with Adelė’s son from her first marriage Zenonas Grigaitis lived in Sviliai village, Kėdainiai region. The Žiužnys family knew the family of a miller from Kėdainiai named Gell. When the Nazi occupation started, the Gells were imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto. In January 1944 Chaja Gell secretly left the ghetto, went to Sviliai village and asked the Žiužnys to save her and her relatives’ families. The Žiužnys agreed to help. Soon after Jeronimas Žiužnys and Zenonas Grigaitis went on a horse carriage to Kaunas and waited at the ghetto fence until Chaja’s sister-in-law Chasia Gell with her two children Rachel and Jakov got out through a hole in the ghetto fence. Žiužnys and Grigaitis took the refugees to their home and hid them in the boxroom. Several days later, the refugees were joined by Chasia’s husband Israel Gell and even later by several other Jews: Baruch Intriligator, doctor David Richman, Akiva Zaitsev, Zadok Bleiman (later Aviatar), Abraham Rafaika, Riva Kagan, Jakov Kagan, Genoch Kagan, and Itcik Michelson. Since the boxroom was too small for everybody to fit in, they dug a hideout under it. It was in the hideout that the refugees lived till the liberation. For nine months Adelė and Jeronimas Žiužnys with Adelė’s son Zenonas Grigaitis took care of the safety and food for 14 adults and 2 children.

 

 

From: Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe

Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, Vilnius, 2019