World War II began in 1939. Jews didn’t know this was the onset of hell for the entire world and especially for the Jews themselves. More than 60 million people died, and 6 million of them were Jews. Jews were shot and tortured to death in the concentration camps and ghettos.

Today the world community is grateful to those who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Teresė Giedrikaitė is a frequent visitor to the Panevėžys Jewish Community. She is the daughter of Emilija and Juozas Giedrikas, who were awarded posthumously the Lithuanian order of the Life-Saver’s Cross. She is an honorable member of the Community. She was invited to attend the unveiling of the new Holocaust memorial in Biržai, Lithuania, but was unable to attend due to poor health. She spoke in an informal setting at the Community, telling the story of her parents who rescued Jews during the war.

She recalled painful memories lodged deep from childhood with tears in her eyes. She was four at the time. Neither time nor Soviet deportation has erased the painful recollections. Her parents hid a Jewish newlywed couple from Kaunas in their home in the small town of Vabalninkas.

After the war arrived, there was a rumor Germans wouldn’t molest Jews who converted to Christianity, and the Giedrikas family got around 20 Jews baptized. As it turned out, the rumor was false and didn’t save any Jews. In the first few days of the Nazi invasion and occupation, Jews were forced to wear yellow identifying armbands, and began to be forced into ghettos. In a state of confusion, many Jews fled the cities for the countryside. The newlywed Gertner family came to Vabalninkas at that time. The Giedrikas family took them in. Teresė recalls her parents had their own names for the married couple, Milutė and Juozas. They became family members for all intents and purposes, sitting down to dinner and sharing bread at one table.

One morning Teresė witnessed armed Germans chasing a barefoot Jewish man through the snow from the neighboring farm. Her father Juozas then sent his wards away quickly to a safer place with someone he knew. They had just left when Germans and Lithuanian collaborators burst into the house. They rooted through everything and threatened to shoot the family members, but found no one, and left. An half-hour later the Jewish couple returned, having lost their way.

The Gertners survived the meat grinder of the war thanks to good people and later became well known in Kaunas. In 1971 they left for Israel. They never forgot their rescuers, however, and used to come at least once a year to visit.