Puriņš Pēteris & Puriņa Marija ; Daughter: Rasa Vilma (Puriņa)

Puriņš, Pēteris Puriņa, Marija Rasa-Puriņa, Vilma Kupšis, Pēteris Kupše, Erna Kaminski, Jānis Kaminskaya, Maria Verdiņš, Valdis Pēteris Puriņš and his wife, Marija, were farmers living in Kleisti, a Rīga suburb, and during the war, their married daughter, Vilma Rasa (b.1919) and her four small children lived with them. About a kilometer away, there was an estate that had been abandoned by its owner in 1940. In the summer of 1941, after the Germans occupied Latvia, the estate became a branch of the Scientific Institute for Medical Zoology, whose laboratory was engaged in developing bacteriological weapons. There were five Jews on the laboratory staff whose job was to feed parasites with their blood. The fleas were attached to their bodies in special containers twice a day and removed when they had had their fill. In their spare time, the Jews were employed in cleaning and maintenance work. In the fall of 1943, at the request of local farmers, the Jews were permitted to help them in the harvest. As a result, members of the Puriņ family became friendly with Ruvim Michelson, a Jew who had formerly lived in Rīga. Just before the summer of 1944, when the Jews working at the estate began to suspect they would soon be returned to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Rīga, Michelson and his friend Mogilnikov asked the Puriņs to give them temporary shelter in their home. From July 1944 until the liberation of the area, in October of that year, the two Jews were hidden in various places in the Puriņs’ home and farm, mainly in a hideaway under the floor of the barn, and their lives were saved. Pēteris Puriņš also was responsible for hiding the other Jews in the group, who were sheltered in the home of his old friend, the forester Pēteris Kupšis. At a prearranged time and place, Kupšis collected the Jews and brought them to his home in the forest, where he lived with his wife, Erna, and their infant daughter. The three Jews – Persy Gurvich, Semyon Peiros, and his15-year-old son Michael – hid with Kupšis for two weeks, but were forced to leave when the Germans set up a military headquarters nearby. After wandering about and sleeping in various places, they found shelter with Maria and Jānis Kaminski, Baltic German farmers living in Kleisti, who hid them in their hayloft until mid October 1944. Throughout their stay with the Kaminskis, the Jews were given food by Valdis Verdiņš, who owned a grocery store in the neighborhood. He knew the group from the time they were working at the Zoology Institute, and already then, at his own initiative, had begun bringing them food. After they escaped from the institute, Peiros kept in touch with Verdiņš by sending him notes with Maria Kaminskaya, who received generous amounts of sugar, butter, bread and other foodstuffs from the owner of the grocery store. After the liberation, the survivors returned to their homes in Rīga. Over the years, they dispersed throughout the world and for many years kept in touch with their rescuers. On June 28, 1998, Yad Vashem recognized Pēteris Puriņš, Marija Puriņa, Vilma Rasa, Erna Kupše, Pēteris Kupšis, Jānis Kaminski, Maria Kaminskaya, and Valdis Verdiņš, as Righteous Among the Nations.