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Ereminas Feliksas

​*1890 01 07 - 1962 10 27
* Recognized in 2012 m.

Daujėnai cemetery,
Daujėnai, Lithuania

Ereminas Feliksas

55.973091
24.518712

About the rescuer and the rescue story

During the Soviet era, officers settled in the rectory of Daujėnai parish. As Marytė Mėkelytė, who takes care of the graves of priests Vincent Baltrušaitis and Feliksas Ereminas, says, Fr. F. Eremins was able to find out from the military commanders who lived in the rectory about the expected removals, he warned the farmers and thus saved many of them from exile in Siberia - they managed to leave and disappear after being warned. When disaster struck, he sheltered the Mėkelis family under his roof and shared food.

Driven out of the rectory by the occupiers, despite the difficult Soviet era, Fr. F. Ereminas managed to build a house, hoping that after his death, there would be an altar here.

Fr. F. Ereminas had a huge library and not only books of religious content, but also books of art, science, and fiction - he willingly gave them to everyone to read. He subscribed to the newspaper "Pravda" and said: "You need to be able to read between the lines."

According to Emilija and Stanislovas Majauskas, the pastor lived a farm life, had animals, kept bees, and when he visited the parish, he was extremely strict at lunchtime: he drank tea with his meal and even tasted the cup poured for the organist and the sacristan - was there really only tea? The pastor himself liked to feed the parishioners who visited him: they never left without a cup of tea and sandwiches.

According to Pranė Burkauskienė, a resident of Daujėnai, F. Ereminas loved cleanliness and order very much, and when he noticed something in the mess during the Christmas time, he did not hesitate to criticize during the sermons. People turned to him when they were sick because the priest had studied medicine, and he often had the necessary medicines that he gave to the sick.

During the German occupation, Fr. F. Ereminas saved the Jewish woman Rachel Rozenberg (24 May 1925-16 July 1987), baptized her with the name Regina, because he was able to get her the documents of the dead girl Regina, hid her in the rectory and with trusted people, and sent her to school during the Soviet era. Regina trained as an obstetrician at medical school and worked for many years at St. Jakūbas hospital in the maternity ward, and since 1962 - in the women's consultation on Vilnius street.

In 1959 V. Koraliova's article on November 21, "Who is that person", published in the newspaper "Stalino keliu", reads:

"In 1942, in Subačius, the so-called Dvariškių street was home to the occupying state. Three Jewish women spent their last night in a small house near it. Two of them were very young, the third was an old woman with tangled hair and a crazy look, whispering prayers all the time. Rozenbergaitė occasionally glanced at her crazy mother. They heard that the Germans are having fun in the country: they drink champagne, and the chief Kubilius, serving the Germans, tells them that when they get tired of champagne, they can enjoy the young Jewish women. Kubilius even let go of the guard who was guarding the arrested people - there is nothing to protect, he will deal with them soon . In the morning, when the drunken stallion fell silent and began to neigh, a woman crept up to the house and carefully began to cut the leg of the lock with an iron saw. After cutting it, she cut off the scarf from her short-cropped head (it was a man disguised as a woman), wiped the sweat, put the scarf on again. She opened the door and called as soon as possible. Rozenbergaitė tried to stretch her mother, but she was kicking, she didn't want to go anywhere, she started screaming loudly when trying to take her out by force. Fearing that Kubilius' loud snoring would not stop, they left the old woman alone. Tidied up and closed the door. Kubilius and his henchmen realized what has happened only in the morning. When he came to deal with the Jewish women, and noticed the escape, shot the old woman right there. Addendum at the end of the article: "Who was that man disguised as a woman, no one really knows even today. The man who saved two barely blossoming lives, who gave them the right to live and enjoy Soviet life, himself remained unknown. Please, if anyone knows where Rozenbergaitė, Kušneraitė lives, who was the person who performed this noble feat, about which A. Kubilius wrote, let us know."

It is known that the girls were freed by Vytas Tamošiūnas.

The priest wrote a diary. Regina is episodically mentioned four times in the diary, but those mentions are very important for the relationship between priest Felix Ereminas and Rachele Regina Rozenbergaitė. In 1945 on September 5, at the end of the post, it was mentioned "Today, Regina comes back from Vilnius for a short time" (his own person returned to his home, where she lived, where she is expected). in 1946 April 23 recorded: "In the evening I taught Regina how to fix medicines" (a priest who studied medicine, like a true father wants to pass on all his knowledge to his daughter), and on April 24. marked: "Regina left for Vilnius. She was taken away by Stakienė" (so she didn’t go out alone, but someone accompanied her, so that the priest would be calmer). So even these small episodes testify to the priest's paternal concern for his ward.

Only one entry (October 20, 1945) is dedicated only to Regina: "R. Rozenbergaitė arrived from the Vilnius paramedics and midwives’ school. She said that the young girls were taken to the forest for 2-3 weeks to make firewood. Students had to cut down tall trees and split it. Everyone has to do 6 mtr. For meal - potatoes and water. They  were accommodated in a beautiful, abandoned farm. A beautiful park, a lake on the hill. There was not a soul on the farm. The students were exhausted, and half of the students got sick. No one cared to replace them. They walked 60 km to Vilnius. Near Vilnius, they boarded the train and, leading each other, returned to the cold dormitory with broken windows. One student was crushed by a tree. This is the most modern and progressive way to educate the intelligent generation."

Rescued persons (Yad Vashem website):

Regina (Rachelė) Rozenbergaitė

55.973091
24.518712

Regina (Rachel) Rozenberg

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