Krūzmane Olga

Krūzmane, Olga Olga Krūzmane (b. 1917) lived on the outskirts of Rīga and Jakov Shneider was one of her friends. When the Germans occupied Latvia, Krūzmane offered to give Shneider shelter in her apartment. He accepted her generous offer, and for more than a year, lived illegally in her home. Every time a knock was heard on the door, Shneider hid behind a clothes closet and only came out when the visitors left. At the end of 1941, Krūzmane temporarily hid two other Jews: Kopel Shneider, Jakov’s uncle, and his friend Abraham Shpungin. The two remained with Krūzmane for nearly two months, and then returned to the ghetto, where Kopel Shneider later perished. Shneider, who did not appear on the ghetto list at all, continued to stay with Krūzmane. Several of his Latvian friends knew his secret, and Shneider would occasionally meet with them in Krūzmane’s apartment or sometimes go to visit them. Once when he went out of the house, he sensed that he was being followed, and although he returned safely to Krūzmane’s home, he told her about his suspicions. Before they could take any cautionary measures, five policemen broke into the apartment on December 10, 1942, and arrested both Shneider and Krūzmane. After their interrogation by the Gestapo, they were separated. Krūzmane was sent to the Salaspils concentration camp, and from there to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she survived the war. When she returned to Rīga in 1945, she learned that Shneider had been incarcerated in the main municipal prison until October 1943, when he died of hunger. After the war, Krūzmane continued to live in Rīga and kept in touch with Shneider’s cousin, the only one of his relatives who survived the war. On September 16, 1999, Yad Vashem recognized Olga Krūzmane as Righteous Among the Nations.