Jokubauskis Stanislovas

Premeneckaitė-Jonušienė, Genovefa Premeneckienė, Aleksandra Premeneckas, Juozas Premeneckas, Vytautas Jokubauskis, Stanislovas In late October 1941, when nearly all of the Beilis family had been murdered by the Germans in a large-scale Aktion in the Ninth Fort in Kaunas, 15-year-old Yehuda Beilis managed to get out of the killing pit. Beilis arrived at the home of a restaurant owner in the village of Muniškiai who had known his parents, and had promised them her help at the beginning of the war. Since SS men frequented the restaurant, Beilis couldn’t stay there, so the owner introduced him to Genovefa (Genė) Premeneckaitė (later Jonušienė) a laundress at the restaurant, who lived nearby. When she heard the Jewish youth’s story, Premeneckaitė decided to convince her family to give him shelter in their village home. Her mother, Aleksandra Premeneckienė, her older brother, 18-year-old Juozas, and her younger brother Vytautas, all agreed to hide Beilis in their home, in spite of the fact that their relative from a nearby village collaborated with the Germans and visited them regularly. Also, some of the neighbors were openly hostile to Jews and one had killed a Jewish woman who had asked him for shelter. Despite the risk, the Premeneckas family hid Beilis, and strictly guarded their secret so that no stranger found out he was there. Beilis stayed in the Premeneckas home for over a year and returned to the Kaunas ghetto where he joined the Jewish underground. With the aid of a Lithuania priest, Stanislovas Jokubauskis, who prior to the war had taught Beilis’s class, a number of children were removed from the ghetto and transferred to a convent. After the war, Beilis immigrated to Israel and regularly corresponded with his rescuers. On March 29, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Genė Premeneckaitė-Jonušienė as Righteous Among the Nations. On August 2, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Stanislovas Jokubauskis as Righteous Among the Nations. On November 15, 2001, YadVashem recognized Aleksandra Premeneckienė, Juozas Premeneckas and Vytautas Premeneckas, as Righteous Among the Nations.