rescuers of jews
Borisevičius Vincentas
Vincentas BORISEVIČIUS
The Bishop of Telšiai saved the four-year-old daughter of Mauša and Mirijam Blatas.
Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius was arrested by the NKGB on 18 December 1945 and was kept in detention for six days. It is not known what he was told, what punishment was threatened and what torture was applied. Only one thing is clear: the NKGB wanted him to be an informer. Released on Christmas Eve, he visited Archbishop Mečislovas Reinys. The two bishops had a long talk.
In January 1946, Bishop Borisevičius wrote a letter to the Commissar of the NKGB to the effect that he categorically refused to collaborate with his commissariat:
“Any pogroms and any hatred are incompatible with my character, and the more so with my duties as a Catholic bishop. I have helped adherents of various ideologies – I have rescued the four-year-old girl of the Jewish Blatas family, I have fed Russian soldiers, and have helped people brought by the Germans to Lithuania. And I did all this at my home. Together with other Lithuanian bishops, I signed a memorandum against the extermination of the Jews... Taking into consideration what I have said, I declare that informing is totally incompatible with me, my duties and my conscience, and therefore I expressly refuse to be an informer. If I am guilty of anything, I must redeem my guilt myself, and not anybody else instead of me. This is a precept of my religion.”
The NKGB was particularly interested in having the bishop as their agent; therefore, they arrested him and kept him in prison cell No 11.
On 28 August 1946, in Vilnius, a closed session of the military tribunal of the NKVD troops in the LSSR took place. The lawyer Zaleckas, defending the bishop, insisted on hearing the Russian witness Eugeniya Medetskaya from Telšiai. She testified to having known the bishop since 1935. On his initiative her children (she had four) were accepted into school. The bishop also supported them materially.
Three Jewish doctors from Telšiai presented written testimony:
“We, the undersigned, doctors Maušas Aronas Blatas, Mirijam Blatienė and Dovydas Kaplanas, residing in Telšiai, declare the following:
After the liquidation of the Telšiai ghetto, Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai sheltered and hid fugitive Jewish women.
Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai supported Jews who were hiding in the countryside and with some priests in the parishes of the Telšiai district.
In July 1944, Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai helped to free our (the Blatas’) four-year-old daughter from Telšiai prison and thus saved her life.”
Bishop Borisevičius refused to make a final plea. On the same day (28 August) the verdict was passed: the bishop was sentenced to execution by firing squad. When after some days Bishop Ramanauskas came to Vilnius to enquire about the whereabouts of Bishop Borisevičius and about the chance of an appeal for a pardon, he was told: “Don’t you know the decision of the court? If the sentence has not yet been carried out, it definitely will be.”
Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius died not only for the homeland, he perished performing God’s commandment as well: “The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 3,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 2005
The Bishop of Telšiai saved the four-year-old daughter of Mauša and Mirijam Blatas.
Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius was arrested by the NKGB on 18 December 1945 and was kept in detention for six days. It is not known what he was told, what punishment was threatened and what torture was applied. Only one thing is clear: the NKGB wanted him to be an informer. Released on Christmas Eve, he visited Archbishop Mečislovas Reinys. The two bishops had a long talk.
In January 1946, Bishop Borisevičius wrote a letter to the Commissar of the NKGB to the effect that he categorically refused to collaborate with his commissariat:
“Any pogroms and any hatred are incompatible with my character, and the more so with my duties as a Catholic bishop. I have helped adherents of various ideologies – I have rescued the four-year-old girl of the Jewish Blatas family, I have fed Russian soldiers, and have helped people brought by the Germans to Lithuania. And I did all this at my home. Together with other Lithuanian bishops, I signed a memorandum against the extermination of the Jews... Taking into consideration what I have said, I declare that informing is totally incompatible with me, my duties and my conscience, and therefore I expressly refuse to be an informer. If I am guilty of anything, I must redeem my guilt myself, and not anybody else instead of me. This is a precept of my religion.”
The NKGB was particularly interested in having the bishop as their agent; therefore, they arrested him and kept him in prison cell No 11.
On 28 August 1946, in Vilnius, a closed session of the military tribunal of the NKVD troops in the LSSR took place. The lawyer Zaleckas, defending the bishop, insisted on hearing the Russian witness Eugeniya Medetskaya from Telšiai. She testified to having known the bishop since 1935. On his initiative her children (she had four) were accepted into school. The bishop also supported them materially.
Three Jewish doctors from Telšiai presented written testimony:
“We, the undersigned, doctors Maušas Aronas Blatas, Mirijam Blatienė and Dovydas Kaplanas, residing in Telšiai, declare the following:
After the liquidation of the Telšiai ghetto, Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai sheltered and hid fugitive Jewish women.
Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai supported Jews who were hiding in the countryside and with some priests in the parishes of the Telšiai district.
In July 1944, Bishop Borisevičius of Telšiai helped to free our (the Blatas’) four-year-old daughter from Telšiai prison and thus saved her life.”
Bishop Borisevičius refused to make a final plea. On the same day (28 August) the verdict was passed: the bishop was sentenced to execution by firing squad. When after some days Bishop Ramanauskas came to Vilnius to enquire about the whereabouts of Bishop Borisevičius and about the chance of an appeal for a pardon, he was told: “Don’t you know the decision of the court? If the sentence has not yet been carried out, it definitely will be.”
Bishop Vincentas Borisevičius died not only for the homeland, he perished performing God’s commandment as well: “The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”
From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 3,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 2005