About the rescuer and the rescue story

Adomas and Petronėlė Urbelis were located on the outskirts of Kelme and lived just like in a village. Urbelienė toiled from morning to night on her small farm. Adomas Urbelis was a labourer, a fisherman, and helped his wife with farm work.
Jehuda Meras was the director of the Jewish National Bank in the town of Kelmė (Raseiniai County) where he lived with his wife Miriam and their two children, Jonina and Icchokas. He was among the first victims of the Lithuanian ultra-nationalists (white armband wearers) when the Germans occupied the area. Miriam was shot on July 29, 1941, during the mass murder operation that took place in the town mansion. Twelve-year-old Jonina and eight-year-old Icchokas remained alive for the time being, with a small group of Jewish children. A number of local Lithuanian women brought some food to the children and when the place where they were being held was left unguarded, they smuggled some of them out. Their former housekeeper, Michalina Legantienė, took Jonina and Icchokas. She brought them to her one-room lodgings, rented in the house of the Urbelis family. In order to ease Michalina’s burden of caring for the two children, Adomas and Petronelė Urbelis invited Jonina to live with them. The sister and brother were baptized, for the rescuers believed it would protect them from persecution. But the authorities soon came and took the children to the temporary Jewish camp near the village of Laukodeme, where the last Jews from the area were being kept. The Meras siblings succeeded in running away and came back to their rescuers. Since it was extremely dangerous to continue hiding them there, Petronelė Urbelienė found a place for the two with Zofija Sankienė* on an isolated Šakaliai farmstead (khutor). After the situation had calmed down in Kelmė, Jonina returned to the Urbelises, and Icchokas to Michalina Legantienė.