Ladigienė Stefanija (Paliulyte)

Strimaitis, Juozas Strimaitienė, Ona Bagdonavičius, Pranas Ladigienė, Stefanija In 1942, Juozas Strimaitis, a civil engineer, lived in Kaunas with his wife, Ona. They were acquainted with the Jewish Veisas family from the 1930s. In summer 1941, after the Germans entered Kaunas, Sofija Veisienė was one of their first victims. Her 13-year-old daughter Irena was interned in the local ghetto. The Strimaitises found her and persuaded her to leave the ghetto. On November 7, 1943, Irena managed to escape and came to the house of Juozas and Ona. There she was provided with false documents in a Lithuanian name and sent to Wilno (Vilnius) to Ona’s surgeon brother, Pranas Bagdonavičius. His family found work for Irena in an orphanage, so it seemed that the Jewish girl was safe. But early in 1944, a rumor spread among Bagdonavičius’s neighbors that a Jewish girl was living there. Irena was moved to a temporary shelter, and later came to the home of Stefanija Ladigienė, the widow of a Lithuanian general, who had six children. Stefanija was not previously acquainted with Irena, but nevertheless, despite her poor financial situation, she treated her as her seventh child. After the war, Irena remained in Lithuania and maintained a close relationship with Ladigienė and her children. The Strimaitises and Bagdonavicius moved to the United States and exchanged letters with Irena. On July 6, 1992, Yad Vashem recognized Juozas Strimaitis, Ona Strimaitienė, Pranas Bagdonavičius, and Stefanija Ladigienė as Righteous Among the Nations.