THE ALLEY OF THE RIGHTEOUS: Ona Vokietaitienė, Antanas Vokietaitis, Stanislava Vokietaitytė-Paškevičienė

 

 

During the Nazi occupation period, 2-year-old Gita Zimanaitė with her parents Josef and Rachel Ziman ended up in the Kaunas Ghetto, where the Ziman’s baby son Meyer was born. Josef managed to carry his son and daughter one by one out of the ghetto in potato sacks and even left the ghetto himself. Rachel refused to flee, because she did not want to leave her brothers, sisters and their children there and was killed together with the rest of the inmates during the liquidation of the ghetto.

 

Ona and Antanas Vokietaitis with their daughter and two sons lived in Marijampolė and did not know the Zimans from before. In spring 1944, Ziman’s acquaintances the Juškevičius family provided shelter to Gita after she was carried out of the ghetto. However, the Juškevičius had no children of their own and it was too dangerous for them to keep hiding Gita. They took Gita to Marijampolė to the family of Ona and Antanas Vokietaitis. The Vokietaitis renamed Gita as Genutė and told everybody that she was a relative of Ona’s. Only the Vokietaitis’ 15-year-old daughter Stasė, who was taking the main care of Gita, knew who the little girl was. Gita hid with the Vokietaitis for seven months – from March till October 1944. The neighbours suspected who the girl was, but never betrayed the Vokietaitis. When the Nazis retreated from Lithuania, her father took Gita back from the Vokietaitis.

 

 

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

Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, Vilnius, 2019