Klebais Margareta ; Sister: Aleksandra

Klebais, Margareta Klebais, Aleksandra Margareta Klebais (b. 190) and her sister Aleksandra Klebais (b. 1906) lived in Rīga, in an apartment, in which they shared a kitchen and bathroom with several neighbors. During the German occupation, Margareta worked as a nurse in a military hospital and Aleksandra was a cook in a tuberculosis hospital. The two were Seventh Day Adventists, and in late 1941, through other members of the sect, they met young Frida Michelson. She had been wounded and left unconscious on top of the dead bodies in the pit during a massacre of the Jews of Rīga in the Rumbuli Forest, a few weeks earlier. At night she climbed out of the pit and wandered through the forest, until she encountered some local farmers. The first to help her were also a family of Seventh Day Adventists. Michelson hid on their farm for several days and then was transferred to another family, who introduced the Jewish woman to the Klebais sisters. Their belief in the sanctity of human life led the sisters to help Michelson. They took her to their home where she remained for a month and a half. Michelson had no papers but thanks to her fluent Latvian and her peasant garb, the Klebaises’ neighbors believed she was a Latvian villager who had come to the city to look for work and was staying with the sisters temporarily. Every morning, the Klebais sisters would go to work and Michelson would cook and keep house for them. At the end of January 1942, Michelson left the Klebais sisters and found temporary shelter in the countryside. At the beginning of 1943, she returned to the Klebaises, this time for only several weeks. On October 13, 1944, Rīga was liberated, and shortly afterward Michelson again came to the apartment of the Klebais sisters, who were pleased to see her. Michelson kept in touch with Margareta and Aleksandra for many years, even after she immigrated to Israel. In the 1970s, she published her memoirs, entitled “I Survived Rumbuli,” in which she gratefullyacknowledged the help of the Klebais sisters and others who had helped save her life. On June 20, 1995, Yad Vashem recognized Margareta Klebais and Aleksandra Klebais as Righteous Among the Nations.