The Holocaust Exhibition of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum was enriched by the unique exhibit – the dark blue headscarf with the white dots. It was Dita Šperlingienė–Zupavičienė, former prisoner of the Kaunas Ghetto and Stutthof Concentration Camp, who presented the headscarf to the Museum.

Official presentation of this precious exhibit, supplemented with the moving video story of Dita Šperlingienė-Zupavičienė took place on 17 September, 2015,at the Holocaust Exhibition. The event was organized in commemoration of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews and also was enrolled into the program of celebrating of 90th Anniversary of YIVO activities.

Dita passed her final exam at the Aušra Girls Gymnasium in Kaunas in June 1941 and was taken to the Kaunas ghetto which was established in August 1941. 30 000 Jews were imprisoned there. After the liquidation of the ghetto in June 1944 Dita was taken to the Stutthof concentration camp.

As the front arrived in 1944, ghetto prisoners were sent to dig ditches. The Nazis marched the prisoners through cities and in order not to frighten the local residents provided the prisoners with normal clothing. Together with clothes, Dita received a dark blue scarf decorated with pea-sized white circles. She was wearing her scarf continually and the white circles began to fall off and holes appeared from exposure to the weather. To fix her scarf she needed light, a needle, thread and patching material. For light, Dita saved up her tiny ration of margarine for several days and made a lamp out of a potato she found in the fields using thread from her undershirt as a wick. She borrowed a needle from her mother, who was a dentist and had received a long needle from one of the prisoners. For patching material Dita used a belt of white cloth she removed from the bottom portion of her undershirt. She sewed them into place using threads pulled from the lining of her coat. Although the scarf was damaged during disinfection of prisoners' clothing following liberation, Dita has kept it for her whole life. She says it symbolizes a young girl's struggle to survive.

© Photos was taken by P. Račiūnas. VGSJM