Rescuers of Jews

Butkevičius Jonas

Zosė Paukštė
Karolis and Juozapota, Jonas and Teklė Butkevičius
Kazimieras Račinskas and his wife Konstancija
Kazimieras Žilėnas and his wife Apolonija
Juozas Trinkūnas and his wife Domicėlė
Alfonsas Gasparavičius and his wife Veronika, their children Antanas and Teklė


Yerachmiel Korb, a well-known merchant, with his wife Miriam and their children lived in Ignalina. They had many friends among the Lithuanian peasants, who also knew all the members of this family. When the war broke out, and the Korb family was interned in the ghetto, several of their friends peasants helped them despite the risk involved. Zosė Paukštė, who had worked in the Korb household before the war, in October 1941 warned the Korb family, that an aktion was planned in the Ignalina ghetto and helped them to escape. Since her husband objected to giving the Korb family shelter in their home, Paukštė found another hiding place for them and during the entire period of the occupation remained in touch with them. The Korbs and two of their sons Moshe and Leon found shelter in the home of Karolis, Juozapota, Jonas and Teklė Butkevičius in the village of Bėgūnai. In 1943, after they had to leave the Butkevičius family, they were taken in by the peasant Kazimieras Račinskas, who, together with his wife Konstancija, did all he could to help them. He moved Miriam Korb to the home of Yelizaveta Denisiuk, a Russian peasant, and also prepared a separate hiding place for her husband at his neighbors Kazimieras and Apolonija Žilėnas.
At the end of 1943, Miriam was arrested by the Gestapo and executed in Ponar.
Yerachmiel and his sons Leon and Moshe continued to wander about, until the father found shelter at Jerzy and Waclawa Bukowski, Polish peasants who lived in the village near Ignalina. The two boys preferred to hide in the forest, where they were helped by Juozas Trinkūnas from the village of Dūdų. Before that, in 1943/44, Trinkūnas had hid the two boys in a hayloft on his farm, and when they were in the forest, he provided them with food.
In May – June 1944 both brothers Leon and Moshe Korb found shelter in the family of Alfonsas and Veronika Gasparavičius, who lived in the village Dūdų, Ignalina region. The boys’ father – Yerachmiel Korb was hiding in a different village. One of the brothers – Leon Korb fell seriously ill. All members of the Gasparavičius family parents Alfonsas and Veronika, and children: Antanas, Juozas and Teklia – were involved in treating and curing him. The risk taken by the Gasparavičius family was justified – brothers Leon and Moshe Korb survived in the family till the liberation. The boys’ father Yerachmiel Korb managed to survive also. In 1944 all three of them immigrated to Palestine via Poland
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