Toliušis Dominykas & Toliušienė Petronėlė

Toliušis, Dominikas Toliušienė, Petrutė Dominikas and Petrutė Toliušis lived in the town of Eržvilkas, Tauragė County with their four children. The Toliušises knew the Libman family, who owned a grocery store and a bakery in the town before the war. Shortly after the Germans entered Eržvilkas, Dominikas, on his own initiative, approached Akiva Libman and proposed to hide him and his family members. In August 1941, the Libmans fled the Eržvilkas ghetto and after a period of wandering in the area they came to the Toliušises. Dominikas and his wife dug a hole in the cellar, which served as a storage area for potatoes, where Akiva Libman and his sisters, Luba (later Jezierski), Sara (later Chotiner) and Chava (later Leibovich) were hidden for more that half a year. When the Germans were conducting searches for Jews in hiding, the Toliušises moved their wards to the forest, where food and news were brought to them daily. The Libmans hid there temporarily, and when the danger passed, they returned to the Toliušises’. When news of an impending search next reached them, the Libmans left Eržvilkas and moved to the countryside, where they stayed until the liberation in October 1944. On April 28, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Dominikas Toliušis and Petrutė Toliušienė as Righteous Among the Nations.