Non-Jewish witnesses to
Holocaust in Lithuania?

Washington, D.C. – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is looking for people to share their experiences of life in Lithuania during World War II and the Holocaust. Ina Navazelskis of the Museum’s Oral History Branch is particularly interested in speaking with non-Jewish Lithuanian witnesses to the Holocaust who now live in the U.S. or Canada.

“If you have a story to tell, or know somebody who does,” Navazelskis told VilNews, “I hope you’ll contact me. I want to hear your story and how it intersects with the Holocaust.”

Navazelskis can be reached at inavazelskis@ushmm.org.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is seeking people to talk to about the Holocaust in Lithuania.
This advertisement was placed in the Lithuanian-language magazine Draugas, published in Chicago.

As a result of outreach efforts by the museum, people are coming forward to tell stories that have never before been told.  “They say, ‘I don’t want to go to my grave without sharing what I saw,’” Navazelskis said.

Navazelskis wants to know not only what people saw, but also who they were and what their world was like.  “This will help us recapture a lost part of history,” she said.  Since many of the direct witnesses have died, “this is the eleventh hour.”

“Maybe you saw a hidden Jewish child,” she said, “or knew Jewish students at your school who disappeared.  Maybe you know of someone who helped to rescue Jews, or can tell us what people in your town had to say about what was happening to those who were deemed to be enemies of the Third Reich.”

Navazelskis wants to hear about deportations, looting of Jewish property, public reaction to the events of the Nazi occupation.  She wants to learn how events were portrayed in newspapers, newsreels, radio broadcasts, and posters.    

Interviewees have been tape-recorded or filmed in Europe, Israel, and North America.  They range from ordinary citizens to public figures. 

Marcelijus Martinaitis recounted that he was five years old and riding in a wagon with his father when he saw Jews being driven into the forest to be shot.  His father covered his eyes, but he heard the screams of the victims.

Algimantas Gureckas, a former leader of the Lithuanian World Community, an émigré organization, recalled working in a ration card office in Panevezys, where he met scores of local citizens every day.  He testified about how local people reacted on the day when the Jews of the city were shot. 

Ada Gens offered testimony about her Lithuanian mother and her father, Jacob Gens, who headed the Jewish community within the Vilna Ghetto.  She spoke of her father’s negotiations with the Nazi command of the ghetto and of his death at the hands of the Gestapo.

The late Laimonas Noreika testified that he was working in an orchard near the Ninth Fort, the notorious killing site near Kaunas, when a soldier approached and offered him a sweater because he seemed cold.  Horrified, he realized the sweater must belong to a Jew who had been murdered at the fort.   

The museum’s oral history archive contains more than 12,000 audio and video interviews. The collection is open to the public and will preserve these stories for future generations

To reach Ina Navazelskis, write to her at inavazelskis@ushmm.org.

Ellen Cassedy traces her Jewish family roots to Rokiskis and Siauliai.  Her book, We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, will be published in March of 2012.  She lives in Washington, D.C.   Visit her website at www.ellencassedy.com.