rescuers of jews

Feiga (Zita) Sabaliauskienė-Kacaitė and Chana (Jadvyga) Pavilionytė-Kacaitė I, Feiga Kacaitė – Zita Povilionytė – Zita Sabaliauskienė, was born on 14 February 1923 and my sister Khana Kacaitė – Jadvyga Povilionytė was born on 16 February 1918. We both were born in the village of Vydmantai not far from Varniai. My mother Estera Kaciene-Šneideraite died in 1938, and father Shlioma Kacas died in 1939. Our parents had fourteen children. My mother's brother Leiba Shneider and his wife Cvija with their three children also lived in Vydmantai. Our family was poor. We worked for a rich farmer. When the war broke out in June 1941 we all found ourselves in the Telsiai ghetto where we stayed till Christmas of 1941. My sisters Khana, and Ita, my brother Sholom, our niece Sara, and I, ran away from the ghetto. The other members of the family were shot dead. One of my brothers lived in the village of Karsteniai where he had a mill. He, his wife and their three children were killed there. Five of us used to hide with the farmers in our village. We were all christened. Our godparents were our rescuers. I lived in the childless family of On a and Stanislavas Burba. I was like a daughter to them and helped them as much as I could. They are no longer alive. Khana lived in the family of Adomavičius, and Ita stayed with the family of Šleževičius. Some time later rumors spread in the village that 'Shliomka's' children were hiding out, and our rescuers took us to their friends' in different places. The priest Juozas Gasiūnas helped us a lot. After the war my sisters and I re¬mained living in the families of our rescuers. My brother Sholem went to Vilnius. He worked in the militia. At present he lives in Israel. Ita and I both got married to Lithuanians. Ita is already dead. Khana and I live in Varniai and are farmers. Varniai, 2001 From With a Needle in the Heart. Memoirs of Former Prisoners of Ghettos and Concentration Camps. Genocide and Resistance Research centre of Lithuania. Vilnius. 2003