Rescuers of Jews

Juzefa MARTUL Kazimieras MARTUL Roza Levina was born in 1941 in the ghetto of Vilnius. Hiding a two-months-old girl in the sleeve of his overcoat, a Polish man whose name remained unknown, took her away from there. That was how she found herself in the family of Juzefa and Kazimieras Martul. Juzefa Martul laundered for the rich, the family had a large garden. Occasionally, when she managed to get out from the ghetto, the girl's true mother would visit her. Roza's elder sister was eight. Parents were trying hard to find a shelter for her in the homes of good-hearted people; unfortunately, Hava could only speak Yiddish, and people were scared to hide her. Hava's fate was the fate of many ghetto children – she was burned in a crematorium. The girls' parents did not survive either; their road ended in Paneriai. Roza survived. She went to school when a letter from far-away Canada reached horne. It was from Roza's aunt, Feiga Levina, who for many years had been looking for her relatives. The Martul family found it very hard to part with the girl who was like a real daughter to them; nevertheless, they prepared her for the trip to Poland, from where Roza successfully reached Canada.

From Hands Bringing Life and Bread, Volume 1,
The Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. Vilnius, 1997