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Anevičius Vytautas

* 1930 - 2022
* recognized in 2009

Sudervė cemetery, Vilnius

Anevičius Vytautas

54.709256 25.230626

About the rescuer and the rescue story

The family of Jeronimas and Antanina lived in Kaunas with their two children - Vytautas and Jadvyga. Jeronimas worked as a lorry driver, Antanina took care of the house.

In early 1944, Antanina was approached by an acquaintance, Baronaitė, who told her that there was a little girl, Nina, left in the ghetto, whose parents had already been killed and who had to be rescued. One day in early spring, Antanina brought the little girl in a big bag to her house and said to the children: 'She will be your little sister. The situation was complicated, the girl did not speak Lithuanian and on the ground floor of the same house lived a policeman, Pinkevičius, who had taken part in the extermination of Jews. At first, Jeronimas reproached his wife, worried not only about the safety of their children but also about the lack of food. However, the husband quickly joined in the rescue of the little girl. As it was too dangerous to raise Nina at home, Antanina and Jeronimas decided to send the children, Vytukas and Nina, to the home of Jeronimas' sisters, the Anevičiūtė sisters, Juzė, Katerina and Ona, who lived in the village of Maldėnai, in the Alvitas Valsčius. Jeronimas Anevičius arranged with the driver of the steam locomotive to take 13-year-old Vytautas and Nina in the steam locomotive towards Alvitas and drop them off in the fields. The children had to walk a long way to reach their aunts. Vytautas Anevičius's aunts understood everything: they took the girl in and looked after her, even though the neighbours wondered where Jeronimas had got such a dark-haired daughter. The situation in this house was not easy either, because at one end of the long house lived a German burgomaster. Juzė Anevičiūtė was especially fond of the girl and took care of her. She soon christened her Janina. Janina's young rescuer, 13-year-old Vytukas Anevičius, stayed with his aunts with Nina until the Russians broke through the front. After the war, Jeronimas and Antanina Anevičius gave the girl to a Jewish orphanage in Kaunas. In 1946, Janina Kleinaitė was taken away by her mother's sister, Gita Feigelman, and taken to Minsk.

Jeronimas died suddenly and unexpectedly - he died at work. He drove his truck into the yard and collapsed on the steering wheel.

Antanina lived with her daughter Jadvyga and her families for the rest of her life.

Vytautas graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Construction. He worked as a designer and engineer. He lived in Vilnius. In 1976 he married for the second time, his second wife Elena was also a designer, who returned from the Gulag in 1954. Elena remembers that Vytautas was not only talented, but also very intelligent, loved his work and did not retire early.

Janina (Nina) met Vytautas for the first time after the war in 2009, when she learned her own life story.

Rescued persons (Yad Vashem web page):

Nina (Jonina) Klein Peregoud

Information collected using:

Vytautas' wife Elena's story

54.709256 25.230626

Jeronimas and Antanina Anevičius and Juze Anevičiūtė (left). Kaunas, 1946, 26 May

Vytautas Anevičius receives awards for his parents, aunt and himself from the President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus. LR, Presidential Palace, Vilnius, 21 September 2007

Nina (Jonina) Klein Peregoud

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