Šimelis Mykolas & Šimelienė Jadvyga

Šimelis, Mykolas Šimelienė, Jadvyga The forester Mykolas Šimelis lived in the village of Tarpumiškis near the town of Kaišiadorys with his wife, Jadvyga Šimelienė, and their five young children. Through his work, Šimelis became close friends with Meir Koren, who owned a tar and terpentine factory in Vievis. Froаm early October 1941, when the majority of the Vievis Jews were murdered, until August 1942, the Korens were in hiding, helped by several locals, and then managed to reach Kaunas where they joined the Jews in the ghetto. On November 26, 1943, Koren, his three children Moishe, Benjamin, and Liuba (later Haviva Fischer), and Michla Furie, Meir’s sister-in-law, managed to flee the ghetto and came to the home of the Šimelis family. Šimelis and his wife welcomed the Jews into their home and prepared a hiding place for them under the floor of the house. Later, nine other Jews, members and friends of the Koren family, joined them: Tanhum and Jehudit Koren, Moshe and Polia Musel, Solomon and Fanya Nehmad, Alter and Etel Arinovski and ten-year-old orphan Chaim Kaplan. It was very dangerous to hide 14 Jews and also difficult to obtain enough food for them. Nonetheless, out of humanitarian motives, the Šimelises provided their Jewish wards with their basic needs. In April 1944, Jadvyga Šimelienė died, while undergoing surgery in the hospital. Mykolas Šimelis continued to care for the hidden Jews until the liberation of the area from Nazi occupation, in July 1944. A year later, on July 10, 1945, Lithuanian nationalists murdered Šimelis for helping Jews. After the war, most of the rescued immigrated to Israel and maintained contact with the Šimelis children. On April 4, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Mykolas Šimelis and Jadvyga Šimelienė as Righteous Among the Nations.