From memories

Rudminaitis Alfonsas

In the last few days I met a Jewish friend of mine. He encouraged me to describe how, during the German occupation of Lithuania, a Jewish boy, Israel Gill, was hidden in the family of my parents and saved from destruction.

The Gilis family lived in Kaunas, Kalniečių Street, before the Second World War, and were our close neighbours. Apart from Israel, there were two other boys in the family. They often came to our garden to play and spend time. Israel's father, a watchmaker, was killed in the first days of the war and the occupation, and the three children and their mother were put in the Kaunas ghetto. One day, Israel came to us. He told us that he had escaped from the ghetto and had been hiding for a few days with an acquaintance of his parents, in the suburb of Kaunas, in the village of Kalniečiai. After that, the owner of the house, afraid of being held responsible, told Israel to leave. Then he came to our family. Here he lived through the German occupation and the post-war period until he grew up and started to live independently.

I shared a room with Israel. At night I went out with him for walks. I protected him from prying eyes. Israel was born in 1929. He came to our family at the age of 13. Israel is now deceased and he lived in South Africa.

My father, Simonas Rudminaitis, born in 1889, died in 1945. He was no longer working during the period described. My mother, Veronika Rudminaitiene born in 1887, died in 1960, was a housewife. I, Alfonsas Rudminaitis, born in 1923 in Kaunas. In 1950 I graduated from Kaunas University Faculty of Medicine. I worked as a doctor in the tuberculosis sanatorium in Kulautuva, in the tuberculosis hospital in Alytus For the last 32 years I have worked in the tuberculosis hospital in Romainiai.

1 June 1993.