Mozūraitytė – Čepienė Mefodija
*1928-2015
* Recognized in 1976
Tauragė cemetery, Tauragė district, Lithuania
Mozūraitytė – Čepienė Mefodija
55.284368
22.303703
About the rescuer and the rescue story
During the German occupation, Jonas and Ona Mozūraitis with their four children Mefodija, Alfonsas, Zuzana and Zenonas lived in Lenkčiai village, Tauragė district. In autumn 1943, their acquaintance Zarkinas brought Leah Brik and her son to them. She asked to hide her and her 8 year old son Arikas-Algiukas. Leah and her son were brought here from the Kaunas Ghetto by Rakevičius family, who lived in Keidžiai village, Raseiniai district. They had been hiding at Rakevičiai place for some time, but the Germans started suspecting them and they needed a new place to hide. Jonas Mozūraitis made them a shelter in a room under the floor. Later Mozūraičiai gave shelter for some time to one more family – Meyer and Henia Meltz.
Leah Brik was a teacher, she spoke many languages, so she could help Mozūraitis children do their homework. Leah Brik spent two months in Mozūraitis family until the end of the war. After the war, she met her husband, who had survived by making a hiding place inside the Kaunas Ghetto, and the family emigrated to Israel.
Leah Brik (Barak) wrote letters to the Mozūraitis for the rest of her life, and in May 2005 Arikas-Algiukas, the President of the Supreme Court of Israel, visited his saviours.
In 1976 Jonas and Ona Mozūraičiai, and their children Mefodija, Alfonsas, Zuzana and Zenonas were titled the Righteous Among the Nations.
And just now we understand how strong our parent’s neighbourly love to the humans was, so that they risked the life of their own family in order to save other lives and help people out in a trouble...
My mother told me that they ran away from Kaunas because of Germans shootings. I asked my mom if the Germans were shooting children and why? My father told me not to tell anyone that Algirdas (Arikas) and Julytė were with us, because if Germans found out, they would shoot us all.
Zuzana Leskauskienė (Mozūraitytė)
Rescued persons (Yad Vashem web page):
Aharon Brik (later Barak)
Lea Meyerovich Brik (later Barak)
Henya Krubelnik Meltz
Meir Meltz
55.284368
22.303703
The Mozūraitis. 1947
Mefodija with her future husband. 1960
Lea Barak, Aharon Barak with wife. 1988