Margaitis Antanas & Margaitienė Eleonora

Margaitis, Antanas Margaitienė, Eleonora The architect Antanas Margaitis lived in Šiauliai with his wife, Eleonora (Lionė) Margaitienė, and their three small children. In September 1943, a priest who knew the Margaitises asked them to take 22-year-old Pnina Benjaminowitz (later Levitan) into their home, after he had obtained false papers for her. Benjaminowitz, a native of the town of Prienai, had lost nearly her whole family in the massacre of the Jews of her town, in late August 1941, and now wanted to get out of the Šiauliai ghetto where she had ended up after failing in her attempt to flee eastward. Although at that very time, a number of German soldiers were staying in their yard, the Margaitises agreed to take the Jewish woman in. She remained there for several days, and the Margaitises treated her warmly and made sure she was safe. Until the liberation of Lithuania, the Margaitises found places of shelter for Benjaminowitz in various villages so that she was able to earn her keep. Whenever she was in real danger, or the conditions of her employment were unbearably difficult, Benjaminowitz returned to the Margaitis family until they could find an alternative place of work for her. In addition, the Margaitises saved the life of Benjamin Abramovich, a Jewish infant who survived the children’s Aktion carried out by the Germans in the Šiauliai ghetto on November 5, 1943. Benjamin’s mother, Mania, took him out of the ghetto, after having arranged to meet Margaitienė who would hide him in her home. To prevent anyone discovering the presence of the Jewish infant in her home, Margaitienė took him the following day to her relatives who lived in a village, where he remained until the end of the occupation. In the difficult days after the liberation, Margaitis continued to offer assistance to Benjaminowitz, until December 1944, when she set out on her journey to Eretz Israel. On May 15, 1991, Yad Vashem recognized Antanas Margaitis and Eleonora Margaitienė asRighteous Among the Nations.