THE ALLEY OF THE RIGHTEOUS: Henrikas Mališauskas, Marija Mališauskienė

Before the war, doctors Riva and Yevel Trapid and their son Leiba lived in Žasliai, Kaišiadorys region (former Trakai county). In June, when the war broke out, Yevel Trapid was arrested and in August was shot near Žiežmariai together with the Jews from the neighbouring regions. Riva Trapidienė (Trapid) received a warning from a priest (Matas Cijūnaitis), left all her belongings and with her 3-year-old son ran into hiding, but nobody wanted to risk hiding a doctor who was known to most of the people in the neighbouring area. Trapidienė with her child kept running from the deadly danger and would walk some 20–30 km every day. Finally, in late autumn of 1941 she reached Aukštadvaris area and ended up with farmers Marija and Henrikas Mališauskas in Sredninkai village. She stayed till the end of the war together with a young scientist Jokūbas Žirnauskas, a refugee from the Vilna Ghetto. All three wards lived in the farmhouse, but if need be they would move to other hideouts installed by the Mališauskas – a bunker in the barn or a hideout set up much further from home. Enrikas, the then teenage son of the Mališauskas, would bring food to the hideouts. He was the main untiring signalman. All three wards successfully survived till the end of the war. However, after the war the Mališauskas were deported to Siberia. Associate Professor of Vilnius University Jokūbas Žirnauskas kept providing material support to the Mališauskas throughout the years that they spent in deportation.

 

 

From: Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe

Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, Vilnius, 2019