Krūmiņš Arturs & Krūmiņa Erna ; Daughter: Mētere Velta (Krūmiņa); Daughter: Krūmiņa Ilga

Krūmiņš, Arturs Krūmiņa, Erna Metere (Krūmiņa), Velta Krūmiņa, Ilga Pilsroze, Lina Mieleika (Mieleiko), Elsa Mieleika (Mieleiko), Unknown Arturs Krūmiņš (b. 1879) a professor of architecture at Rīga Polytechnic University, lived with his wife, Erna, and their two daughters – Velta, the wife of the artist Meters, and her younger sister Ilga (b. 1911). The Jewish physician, Oscar Press (b.1890) his wife, Vilma, and son, Bernhard (b. 1917) were among their many acquaintances. After the Germans occupied Rīga on July 1, 1941, Press and his family were interned in the ghetto. Erna Krūmiņa, who visited them before the ghetto was sealed, on October 25, expressed her readiness to help them in any way possible. In mid-December, after two large-scale Aktionen, during which Vilma Press was killed, Press and his son fled from the convoy of workers, and under cover of darkness, arrived at the home of their friends, the Krūmiņs. The two Jews were cordially received, and one of the rooms in the apartment where the four family members and a maid, Lina Pilsroze, lived, was immediately vacated for them. Pilsroze undertook the task of looking after Press and his son, cooking for them, laundering and mending their clothes and cleaning their room. She and the members of the Krūmiņ family were determined to protect the Presses, and for nearly three years, Press and his son hid in the Krūmiņ home without ever leaving it. One of the main problems in sheltering them was to obtain food. In occupied Rīga, every non-Jewish resident who had an identity card received food ration-cards against which he received a minimal quantity of food hardly sufficient for one person. Despite the efforts of the five rescuers to divide their meager food supply into seven portions, they all went hungry. The problem was solved with the help of Elza Mieleika (Mieleiko), a friend of the Krūmiņ family, and her mother, who would go out to the villages once a week, sell some of her personal belongings andbuy foodstuffs from the peasants. Twice during the German occupation, in the summertime, Prof. Krūmiņš and his family went on vacation, and Press and his son remained under the care of Pilsroze and Mieleika. No one else knew the Krūmiņs’ secret until the liberation of Rīga on October 13, 1944. After the war, the survivors maintained their close friendship with their rescuers for decades, even after Bernhard Press immigrated to Germany in 1979. On May 22, 1983, Yad Vashem recognized Arturs Krūmiņš, his wife, Erna, and his daughters, Velta Metere and Ilga Krūmiņa, Lina Pilsroze and Elsa Mieleika and her mother, as Righteous Among the Nations.