{"id":16,"date":"2023-04-18T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T11:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2023-08-10T09:47:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T09:47:30","slug":"ar-pamirstum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/ar-pamirstum\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you forget?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At the end of the war, squads of Jewish partisans that operated in the forests were demobilised, prisoners who survived returned from the concentration camps, and ghetto prisoners who escaped and were supported by the locals at their hiding places were freed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Female Holocaust survivors began to create a new life based on family and children. If there was an opportunity some of them repatriated to Israel, keeping their wartime experiences secret, hiding them even from the closest family members. Testimonies of daughters and granddaughters of female survivors reveal that even silent traumatic experiences were passed down the generations, and had a negative impact on three generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After many years of silence, the events told and described helped the survivors of the Holocaust to come to terms with their past and overcome psychological trauma. Opening up is not easy and requires a lot of courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women who shared the painful experiences solved the dilemma: Is it worth sacrificing their privacy to encourage the other women to talk about their traumatic experiences?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere was a public library in Kaunas. […] He was probably ten years old. I didn’t tell him anything […] and, nevertheless, once he brought me the book \u2018Unarmed Fighters\u2019 by Sofija Binkien\u0117 […]. Of course, I had it, but he didn\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t show them […]. He said, \u2018Mom, I found one book. […] And stole it … for you\u2019. Can you imagine, I never told him anything, and he was maybe ten, but he somehow found that book, began to read it, could not put it to the side, and brought it to the mother. […] I never in my life found out that he had stolen anything. You see \u2013 you ask, how did the children react?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fruma Vitkinait\u0117-Ku\u010dinskien\u0117<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fruma Vitkinait\u0117-Ku\u010dinskien\u0117, 88-year-old former prisoner of the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaunas Ghetto. Her family did not survive during the liquidation of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Kaunas Ghetto, but Fruma was saved thanks to the efforts of her<\/p>\n\n\n\n

mother and local rescuers of various nationalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fruma Vitkinait\u0117-Ku\u010dinskien\u0117 with her aunt Rivka \u0160mukleryt\u0117-O\u0161erovi\u010dien\u0117, 1946. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the personal archive of Fruma Vitkinait\u0117-Ku\u010dinskien\u0117 <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0Knygos apie \u017eyd\u0173 gelb\u0117tojus vir\u0161elis. S. Binkien\u0117 \u201eIr be ginklo kariai\u201c (Vilnius, 1967)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomo Kapo\u010diaus nuotrauka<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMany who survived in the ghetto and various [concentration] camps told nothing to their loved ones. Stayed silent for a long time … couldn\u2019t talk. And their children didn\u2019t know what they were going through. And only in recent years many started coming to Paneriai. And they started talking. Myself to my family \u2013 also … My children were born … I started telling them from the first day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fania Yocheles-Brancovskaya<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fania with her husband Michail Brancovsky after the war, in the yard of the Vilnius <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ghetto library. August or September, 1944. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the personal archive of Fania Yocheles-Brancovskaya <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Photo for the interview with Fania Yocheles-Brancovskaya in June 2018. In her hands \u2013 a photo of Fania\u2019s family that did not survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI was silent. I never talked about anything. […] I wanted to forget all of it. Just delete everything. […] I tried not to think about it. I didn\u2019t write about extremely difficult situations […] there is nothing about all this. […] I wrote about completely different things. […] Enough, but not everything. Maybe it\u2019s good that you\u2019re asking about it because the world needs to know what it was. […] Even now, it\u2019s hard to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dita Zupovitz-Sperling<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Dita Zupovitz-Sperling, 99-year-old former prisoner of the Kaunas Ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp. Dita with her husband Yuda Zupovitz in the Kaunas Ghetto in March 1944. Yuda Zupovitz was soon arrested, tortured and killed in the Kaunas Ninth Fort. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the personal archive of Dita Zupovitz-Sperling<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo for the interview with Dita Zupovitz-Sperling in August 2015 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAnd after the death of my mother the Holocaust continued for me. I blamed myself [for my mother\u2019s suicide]. Why did I get up later that day? I could have saved my mother. […] I couldn\u2019t talk because that was the way I was taught in my childhood \u2013 do not tell anybody what\u2019s important to you […] after my mother’s death \u2013 I wasn\u2019t myself. I was an absolutely different person. […] I haven\u2019t changed. A human being cannot change. I mean I forgot who I used to be. I became angry and anxious. I had no patience for anything. It all continued for too long […] we have to talk about pain, and fear. If there is no one in a family, there are no close people \u2013 then I\u2019m ready to listen. […] My purpose is to make it easier for anyone who has a hard time … To listen. […] I talk to pupils in schools \u2013 that\u2019s important. […] People need to know to avoid it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bella Shirin<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bella Shirin, the daughter of the Holocaust survivors, with her mother and father in the 1940s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the personal archive of Bella Shirin <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bella Shirin, 2020. Photo by Agn\u0117 Bekeraityt\u0117. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the personal archive of Bella Shirin. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI remember that in my childhood she used to say: \u2018They killed my family\u2019. I was about five years old when we went to Plung\u0117 and Kau\u0161\u0117nai. It was a kind of family trip, and I could not understand at that time why she was crying her eyes out. I had never seen her crying but at that time she was weeping loudly. She had such a close relationship with her mother, and she was killed in Kau\u0161\u0117nai. My mom was the youngest. Only her brother survived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judita Gliauberzonait\u0117, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018\u2018There was the so-called Children’s Action that day. What my eyes saw \u2013 others did not see. We were told not to leave the house, and not to open the door [but] to keep it not locked. But I didn\u2019t manage. It was near the Neris River. The river was close … I had to see what was going on there. I dared to glance through the opened door a little … It was better that I didn’t do it … Because at that moment I saw a German SS soldier standing next to a young woman with a child. He didn\u2019t want that child himself … They took the children away that day. She was holding her baby so he unleashed a big German dog \u2013 you know \u2013 a wolf. She was so scared \u2013 the child fell to the ground. That was the end. He took the child … Yes, I\u2019m trying … It seems that I did not write about it. That\u2019s why I’m trying [to tell] about it … I have to add that I\u2019ve deleted everything I\u2019d seen. I do not know how. It was deleted without my participation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dita Zupovitz-Sperling<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\r\n SENSITIVE STORY <\/div>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
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\r\n Would you forget? <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Interview with Dita Zupovitz-Sperling in February 2021 <\/div>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n LISTEN <\/span>\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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At the end of the war, squads of Jewish p…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798,"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woundedmemory.kf.vu.lt\/en_US\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}