Zvaigzne Vilis

Zvaigzne, Vilis Vilis Zvaigzne was a resident of Rīga. He and his family members were Baptists. During the German occupation Zvaigzne became acquainted with Elija Jakobson, a Jewish chemistry engineer, whose entire family, including wife, Agnesa, and three-year-old daughter Melita were shot in the Rumbuli Forest on November 30, 1941. Jakobson himself, being strong and healthy, was used for hard physical labor. Zvaigzne secretly brought him food and urged his Jewish acquaintance to run away, not to wait passively for the liquidation of the remaining Jews. In a cellar of the building where his family lived, Zvaigzne prepared a hiding place and explained to Jakobson how to reach it. In August 1943, Jakobson joined a group of 13 Jewish prisoners that succeeded in escaping from the labor camp. Everyone went to his “patron” – a person or a family who was ready to endanger themselves. Jakobson came to Zvaigzne, who sheltered and fed him for more than two months. Upon Jakobson’s request Zvaigzne arranged for a false Latvian identity card with Jakobson’s picture in it and connected him with the Soviet underground. With its help he was transferred to the partisans. After approximately half a year, Jakobson appeared in Zvaigzne’s home again: his group had been attacked and defeated. Disguised as a farmer, Jakobson managed to return to Rīga and stayed there for two weeks until he regained his strength and left for the forests again. Next time he met Zvaigzne was already after the liberation of Rīga, in October 1944. The two remained close friends all their lives, even after Jakobson’s immigration to Israel in 1973. On April 25, 1995 Yad Vashem recognized Vilis Zvaigzne as Righteous Among the Nations.