THE ALLEY OF THE RIGHTEOUS: Vincas Dailidavičius, Uršulė Dailidavičienė, Algimantas Dailidavičius |
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Published: 2023-01-18
VINCAS DAILIDAVIČIUS
1903–1984
URŠULĖ DAILIDAVIČIENĖ
1897–1997
ALGIMANTAS DAILIDAVIČIUS
1931–2016
The war time was an extremely hard period. You could not trust a single neighbour, let alone officials who frequented the village where we lived. They would come for one reason, for example, tax payment, but you never knew what they would actually be looking for. You had to be really careful. Had they learned that we were hiding Jews, we would all have faced the same fate.
Algimantas Dailidavičius
During the first days of the war Masha and Girsh Michnaicky with their daughter Frida and the rest of Vilkaviškis’ Jews were imprisoned in local military barracks. In September 1941, they managed to escape and ended up in the Kaunas Ghetto. Their relatives were shot together with the rest of Vilkaviškis’ Jews. In November 1943, the Michnaickys fled from the Kaunas Ghetto together with Masha Michnaicky’s sister Ema Davidovich. They headed towards their native Vilkaviškis area in search of help. The Michnaickys were dogged by misfortune: their new-born daughter died and Frida, who was left for a short while to hide with a farmer, was injured by pigs when she went to hide from strangers in a pig pen. The owners ordered Frida to leave. On a late November evening in 1943, a scared and injured 9-year-old Frida wandered into the home of Uršulė and Vincas Dailidavičius in Pagramdai village. Her appearance clearly indicated she was a Jewish girl, but the child was in need of urgent help. Dailidavičienė washed Frida, bandaged her wounds, fed her and put her to bed. Frida’s parents found Frida at the Dailidavičius’ only several days later. Uršulė and Vincas Dailidavičius with their son Algimantas agreed to shelter Frida until the Michnaickys found another place to hide, but it was not easy to find a safe hideout. Finally, the Michnaickys ended up staying with the Dailidavičius till the end of the war.
From: Whosoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe
Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, Vilnius, 2019
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