Virtual exhibition
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Lives and fates of the Lithuanians, Poles, Jews and other nations intertwined in Vilnius for many centuries. In the middle of the 20th century, after Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania, the persecutions of Jews started. Different kinds of punishment were imposed on the people who saved Jews. If a person, who had hidden a Jew and who had been reported to the representatives of the authority, explained that he/she had done it for money, the said person would be sentenced to three months of imprisonment. Those savers, who were Catholics and showed their compassion to the lives under destruction, were regarded as partisans: their families were shot dead together with their small children as well as their farms were set on fire or handed over to the informant.
This exhibition is dedicated to the people, who saved Jews, risking their lives during the years of the Nazi occupation (1941–1944). The historians established that more than 25000 Lithuanian residents helped their fellow citizens Jews to save themselves from the Holocaust. It is thought that during the years of the Nazi occupation about 2500–4000 Jews were hidden in Lithuania. Until 2012 the Institute of National Remembrance (Yad Vashem) granted the Righteous Among the Nations Award to 831 Lithuanian citizens. The Polish family of Wincenty and Jadwiga Antonowicz from Vilnius also received the aforementioned award.
Wincenty Antonowicz.
Jadwiga Antonowicz.
Wincenty Antonowicz with his daughters Teresa (left) and Lucyna.
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Wincenty Antonowicz with his daughters Teresa, Lucyna and son Janek.
During the first days of the war they sheltered a Jewish woman Bronislava Malberg in their flat in Pylimo street. The Nazis condemned her mother to suffer and die in Vilnius Ghetto. Fearing that the outsiders could find out about the girl, hidden in the room of their daughters Lucyna and Teresa, the family of Antonowicz obtained forged documents in the name of Joana Malinowska and hid her at the reliable people’s place in Nemenčinė.
Due to frequent Soviet air raids, a bomb fell next to their house, located near the railway station, therefore in February of 1942 the family of Antonowicz acquired Tuskulėnai manor in the suburb of Vilnius. Wife Jadvyga could not make it to the manor because the war broke her down and she died in the same year at the age of 43. After his wife‘s death, Wincenty Antonowicz and his son Janek settled in Tuskulėnai. Soon Lucyna and her sister moved there too.
Teresa Antonowicz (left) with her friend against the manor background.
Antonowicz family - (from left) Teresa, Vincent and Lucyna - with their friends on the terrace of the manor.
Janek Antonowicz with his friend.
In 1944 he was arrested by the Soviet Intelligence in Vilnius and was taken to the coal mine of Donbas.
Lucyna Antonowicz (first on left) with her friends next to the officina of the manor. Her brother Janek stands in a second row.
Sisters Lucyna and Teresa Antonowicz with their friends in the manor park.
Teresa Antonowicz.
Sisters Teresa and Lucyna Antonowicz and their brother Janek with his friends.
Lucyna Antonowicz and her friend against the manor background.
Sisters Lucyna and Teresa Antonowicz with their brother Janek and friends
in the yard of the manor.
Sisters Lucyna and Teresa Antonowicz with their friends in the manor park.
Teresa Antonowicz with her friends in the manor park.
Sisters Teresa and Lucyna Antonowicz and their brother Janek with his friends.
Sisters Teresa and Lucyna Antonowicz with their friends.
Sisters Lucyna and Teresa Antonowicz with their friends.
Men of the family started working on a farm within the manor territory. During the war it was difficult to get food products therefore they grew vegetables, kept a horse and some cows. In the place where Žirmūnai residential area is situated today, there was a big field where vegetables used to grow and a large park with old tall poplar trees in front of the house stretched as far as the River Neris.
The owner of Tuskulėnai Wincenty Antonowicz (on the right of a landing) with his son Janek.
Janek Antonowicz.
When the Germans started catching young men and women in the streets, in cinema theatres and even on Sundays at churches or markets in order to send them for forced labour in Germany, being engaged in farming saved Lucyna’s brother Janek and the young workers, employed by their father.
“In Tuskulėnai Wincenty Antonowicz engaged in farming. He employed his son Janek and some other young men thus rescuing them from being taken to do forced labour in Germany“.
From Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer reminiscences.
Janek Antonowicz.
At the end of August or at the beginning of September 1943, Wincenty Antonowicz sheltered Zalmen Kurgan family (Jewish descent) in Tuskulėnai manor. He said nothing about it to his children because he was afraid that they might let it out to somebody. He told them about it only after the war was over. Daughter Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer said the following: „Now I understand why we kept so many cows. Not only us but also the hidden Kurgan family needed food.“
„I testify that during the last ten months of the German occupation Mr. Wincenty Antonowicz helped me and my family to hide by unselfishly helping us as much as he could.“
Zalmen Kurgan and his family
Zalmen Kurgan testimony
In July 1944 the Soviets pushed the German Army out of Vilnius. Tuskulėnai manor was nationalised, and the Antonowicz family was not allowed even to collect their personal things. Son Janek was arrested in the street by the Soviet intelligence and imprisoned in Lukiškės prison; later he was taken to Ukraine to work in the coal mines of Donbas. In October of the same year he was released and the whole family was repatriated to Poland.
In 1997 the Institute of National Remembrance (Yad Vashem) granted the Righteous among the Nations award to Wincent and Jadvyga Antonowicz (posthumously). In 1998, Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer was also given this award.
On 27th October, Wincenty and Jadvyga Antonowicz (posthumously) were awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title for saving Jewish people during the war.
The Honorary diploma of the Institute of National Remembrance (Yad Vashem)
The Honorary diploma of the Institute of National Remembrance (Yad Vashem)
On 19th August 1998 Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer was awarded the Righteus Among the Nations title for saving Jewish people during the war.
The Honorary diploma of the Institute of National Remembrance (Yad Vashem)
On 16th March 2000, Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer was awarded the name of the Honorary Citizen of the State of Israel.
In 2001 President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus presented an award of the Life Saving Cross to Wincenty and Jadvyga Antonowicz and Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer.
Ceremony of awarding the Life Saving Cross to the family of Antonowicz. President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus and Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer.
The awards were presented to Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer.
On 17th 2001 April The President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus awarded The Cross of Rescuing the Dying to Wincenty Antonowicz (posthumously) for saving Jewish people during the war.
Decrees of the President of the Republic of Lithuania on Awarding the Life Saving Cross
On 17th April 2001 The President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus awarded The Cross Rescuing the Dying to Jadvyga Antonowicz (posthumously) for saving Jewish people during the war.
Decrees of the President of the Republic of Lithuania on Awarding the Life Saving Cross
On 17th April 2001 The President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus awarded The Cross of Rescuing the Dying to Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer (posthumously) for saving Jewish people during the war.
Decrees of the President of the Republic of Lithuania on Awarding the Life Saving Cross
The answer to the question what made people not to be afraid of persecutions and threats of death penalty and risking their lives to remain faithful to the principles of humanity is Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer’s words about her parents:
"My parents were the people who always were guided by the saying: homo res sacra homini – man to man is a sacred thing. All sorts of nonsense about the race, nationality, fanaticism, hair and eye colour was of no significance to them."
Lucyna Antonowicz.
Lucyna Antonowicz.
Teresa Antonowicz.
Photographs, used for the exhibition, are taken from Lucyna Antonowicz-Bauer’s
personal archive.
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The exhibition was arranged by the employees of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
Dovilė Lauraitienė, Beata Stanevičienė, Elena Matulionienė and Aleksandras Nesvat