"Before the liquidation of the Ghetto, we,
the surviving members of the organization, stayed in the
Ghetto in a hiding place...On July 13, 1944 the Germans
discovered our hiding place. They ordered all of us to leave
and to stand up in lines of four people in a row, and told us
that we would be led to work...I quickly threw away my coat with the yellow star, got up and
continued to run. While I was running, a young Lithuanian ran
after me and told me to stop. I thought that this was my end. He
came running up to me and asked me whether I knew a woman named
Sara and where she was.
I answered him that I did not know her and continued running. In
this moment, I saw that Nina Finkelstein was running with
me, and both of us turned in the direction to Mania's house. Mania was waited for us at her door, so that
she could take us immediately to her hiding place, which was under
the steps leading to her house. All this
happened on July 13, 1944...
While standing in the row, I decided I would escape given the
first opportunity. Each of us had one bottle of water, and a
loaf of bread, but I gave this away. I didn't take it so that
I could run more quickly. While running, I heard a shot, and
at that moment I threw myself into a field of tall potato
plants......In the same night, Lucy Zimmerman came to us; she had run from Alexot. All of us were very happy to have escaped and to be
together. We slept over night and the next morning, one of us saw
two German soldiers through the window. We crept into the hiding
place, but Lucy went out through the door. (She looked Jewish). She
crept through the fence into Mania's garden and hurt her foot.
Later, she went to the Ghetto and saw that the Ghetto was burning.
All this we heard only later. While there, the Russian collaborators
recognized her. She was a very good looking, dark-haired, Jewish
looking woman. Her foot was bleeding. They approached her and asked
her for her documents, but unfortunately, she did not have any
documents. She pointed to the house and told them that she lived
there. When they came back to the house, Lucy asked Mania for the
document, and said that Mania was her sister. "Mania, you are my
sister" she cried, "give me the passport, help me." We were lying in
the hiding place, and heard all that was being said above our heads.
Mania called in one of the soldiers and offered him money, but he
said that the older one was the commander and if he would take
money, he also would agree. Unfortunately, when the second one
entered the house, and heard that she offered him money, he shouted
at her and said " you are a Jew too and you have to come with us."
Mania also looked Jewish. Mania with her little son, Lucy and the
soldiers left to the Ghetto. They were already standing against the
wall waiting to be shot, when a Lithuanian neighbor of Mania's came
after them and swore that she was not Jewish. Then, a German
approached her and asked her for her passport. Mania answered that
it was in her house in the cupboard. The German soldiers, Mania with
the child and Lucy came back from the Ghetto to the house. The door
of the cupboard was pulled open and Mania showed the Germans her
passport. The Germans said to her: "Sorry, dear lady." Afterwards
they left with Lucy to go back to the Ghetto. Lucy was shot
afterwards. Lucy had called: "Mania, you are my sister. Give me the
passport." Until today, I can hear these words in my ears, but
nobody could help her. This was the end of the second day after the
escape...A few days before the liberation
of Kovno, which occurred on July 27, 1944, our dear friend Mattas
did not come home to spend the night. We were very afraid and
concerned and could not understand what had happened. The lock of
the outer door was not in order, and so it was easy to enter the
flat. Our window on the second floor was exactly opposite the gate
of the courtyard. Nina and I decided that one of us would
sleep and the other one would watch to see who would enter through
the gate. When I was watching, I saw that Germans soldiers entered
the courtyard. This was early in the morning. They knocked on the
windows and called: "Get up, come out to work." I woke up Nina
and we decided to creep into the attic, which could be locked
with a key. We agreed that if they found us, we would say that we
had escaped from Vilna, from the Russians. Then we waited in
silence. Suddenly we heard a woman at the door say: "You, old man,
don't have to be afraid. They are only looking for people who can
work." To the Germans she said: "There is only an old man living
here, and he is not at home." It was our luck that they left. From
the anxiety I had very strong stomach cramps. I crept out of the
attic and on my belly crept to the toilet. When I left the toilet I
noted the sofa in the front room. I lifted the seat and saw that it
contained a chest that was empty except for some soft potatoes. I
told this to Nina and we decided that we had to hide in the
chest in the sofa, and wait until dark until the siege ended. That
is what we did. While we lay in the sofa, I put a soft potato
between the lid of the chest and the seat, so that we would have air
to breathe. We could not stop thinking about what might have
happened to Mattas. Maybe he betrayed us? Later we heard a woman
come to the flat looking for the old man. She spoke as if to
herself: "Don't be afraid, the Germans have already left." I saw her
feet through the opening. I cannot recall how long we were in the
chest. Suddenly we heard the old man Mattas entering the flat with
his stick. He went to the parrot, which was in a cage and noticed
that the plaid cloth, which was on the sofa, was in a different
position than before. He opened the sofa and saw us. What happiness
that he had found us! With tears in his eyes he repeatedly said: "My
dear girls, my good children." He told us that that night when he
was coming home, he was called to work on the streets. He played a
bit, pointing at his blue glasses and saying that he was totally
blind and therefore could only walk with the stick and could not
work. Thus, they let him go home. He was sure that they had already
found us and taken us away. How happy he was to find us! The same
day Mania's son Vitas came to us and brought us food. We asked him
to have Mania take us back to her house and that is what happened.
She again came to us, dressed us up and brought us to the river.
Tadas brought us to the other side of the river, one at a time with
a small boat. We could not pass the Slabotka Bridge, because one had
to show documents, which we did not have. When we came to Mania, we
met a Jewish man who was also hiding there. Mania had found him in a
public toilet and taken him in to her house. She called him the
"shitty one", because he was full of dirt when she found him. On
July 31 at night Mania went out to the street and noted that it was
totally quiet. Suddenly she noticed the Red Army. She started to
call and we all left the house. We all run to the Soviet soldiers on
the street and out of joy kissed and hugged them, not knowing what
else to do. It is impossible to describe our joy. This we will
always remember and tell that only because of them were we saved."
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