Čiurlionienė Sofija

Čiurlionienė, Sofija Čiurlionytė-Zubovienė, Danutė Zubovas, Vladys Sofija Čiurlionienė (b. 1886) was a Lithuanian writer and a poet, widow of the well-known composer and painter Mikolajus Čiurlionis. After her husband’s premature death in 1911, Sofija settled in Kaunas with her daughter Danutė (b.1910), who also became a writer. Prior to the war, Danutė wed architect Vladys Zubovas. The couple and their two children lived with Sofija. Some time after the occupation of Kaunas by the Germans and the establishment of the ghetto, Sofija was approached by her acquaintance Dvora Jelin, wife of Jewish writer Meir Jelin. They were desperately looking for shelter for their only daughter Esther. After consulting her family, Sofija agreed to hide the one-year-old girl at her apartment. Little Ester stayed with Čiurlionienė and the Zubovases for several weeks and then a safer place was found for her, in a monastery orphanage outside the city. But Sofija and her family were ready to continue offering their help to Jews. They arranged with Dr. Petras Baublys*, the director of an orphanage in Vilijampolė, a suburb of Kaunas, to accept three Jewish toddlers. The ghetto underground, under the guidance of Chaim Jelin, decided that those three would be Tamara Ratner (later Levi), Rina Zupovich (later Wolbe) and Ruth Latzman (later Peer), daughters of underground activists. Čiurlionienė conceived of the rescue plan, and the Zubovases engaged in smuggling the Jewish children out of the ghetto, taking a great personal risk in doing so. Later the rescuers also found a permanent shelter for three-year-old Moshe Rozenblum and his parents, Anatoly and Raya Rozenblum. On February 11, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Sofija Čiurlionienė, Danutė Čiurlionytė-Zubovienė and Vladys Zubovas as Righteous Among the Nations.