New York, 2003
“Drawing on twenty-five years of original research, Gilbert takes us through Germany and every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic, where the Righteous, by their lifesaving actions, challenged Nazi barbarism.”.
Six million Jews were murdered, but tens of thousands were saved.
I knew that the coachman was a friend of the Jews and when I saw him, my eyes filled with tears. I told him that I was looking for a hiding place after I had had to leave the house of a Polish family. He explained that he could not take me because he was already hiding a Jewish couple in his stable— even his wife was unaware that he was providing shelter to Jews. Nevertheless, he agreed that I should come to him if I could find no other place.’ Finding two Jews who were hiding in the granary of a Polish peasant who had taken them in, David Prital told them he hoped to get in touch with those peasants who belonged to the Baptist sect. One of the Jews taking him to a small gap in the wall of the granary, pointed out a typical Ukrainian house and said to him, “‘In this house lives one of the Baptists, but you should be careful because in the adjacent house lives his brother who will kill you without any hesitation. Good luck!” In the evening, I left the granary and walked in the direction of the house that was covered with straw. I walked in the path between two fields, and my heart was full of anxiety and apprehension. Suddenly I saw a figure of a Ukrainian peasant walking peacefully in the fields. My instincts, which served me well in many dangerous situations, told me that I didn’t have to be afraid of this meeting. He approached me and immediately understood who I was. With tears in his eyes, he comforted me and he invited me to his house. Together we entered his house and I understood instantly that I had met a wonderful person. “God brought an important guest to our house,” he said to his wife. “We should thank God for this blessing.” They kneeled down and I heard a wonderful prayer coming out of their pure and simple hearts, not written in a single prayer book. I heard a song addressed to God, thanking God for the opportunity to meet a son of Israel in these crazy days. They asked God to help those who managed to stay alive hiding in the fields and in the woods. Was it a dream? Was it possible that such people still existed in this world?
The Jews hidden in Pauvlavicius’s cellar remained there for the next three weeks, until the day of liberation. ‘After liberation,’ Miriam Krakinowski recalled, ‘Pauvlavicius was killed by Lithuanians who hated him for saving Jews.’*4 He was actually murdered by one man. That someone should be murdered by his fellow villagers, his fellow nationals—his fellow human beings—for an act of kindness (some would say, nobility) is hard to contemplate. Yet such incidents were repeated again and again.
Ben Meed’s wife Vladka, also a survivor, reflected: ‘The percentage of the Righteous was so small compared with the numbers of Jews who were killed.’
Henri and I owed our lives to Marianne and Adéle, but we also owed our lives to the whole village.