Mozūraitis Jonas & Mozuraitienė Ona ; Son: Alfonsas ; Son: Zenonas ; Daughter: Leskauskienė Zuzana (Mozuraitytė); Daughter: Čepienė Mefodija (Mozuraitytė)

Mozūraitis, Jonas Mozuraitienė, Ona Čepienė-Mozuraitytė, Mefodija Mozūraitis, Alfonsas Leskauskienė-Mozuraitytė, Zuzana Mozūraitis, Zenonas The murder of the Kovno (Kaunas) Jews began shortly after the German occupation in the end of June 1941. The ghetto was established in August 1941, and massacres of Jews were carried out periodically throughout the existence of the ghetto. The Ninth Fort, near Kovno, became also the execution site of tens of thousands of Jews from Germany and other countries. Jonas and Ona Mozūraitis, poor farmers, lived in the village of Lenkčiai, Jurbarkas County, with their four children, Mefodija, Alfonsas, Zuzana and Zenonas. In August 1944, they were approached by their friend, Jaroslavas Rakevičius*, who asked them to give temporary shelter to a Jewish woman, Lea Brik, and her eight-year-old son Aharon. They had run away from the Kaunas ghetto in May 1944, and were hiding since then at the Rakevičiuses, who had a variety of well-concealed hiding places and helped many Jews. His appeal to the Mozūraitises was prompted by a search conducted at his house earlier that month, during which a Jewish prayer book was found. Following the incident, Rakevičius decided to find alternative accommodation for his wards. The Mozūraitises took pity on Brik and her son and agreed to take them into their home. They prepared two underground bunkers, one inside the house and another one in the yard, which Brik and her son used when strangers were visiting their hosts or searches were carried out in the village. Brik and her son stayed with the Mozūraitis family for two months until the Red Army liberated the village. After the liberation, Brik and her son returned to Kaunas where they were reunited with husband and father, Zvi Brik. Soon the family left for Israel, where they changed their family name to Barak. For many years Lea Barak exchanged letters with her rescuers and sent them packages when possible. Aharon Barak became an IsraeliSupreme Court judge and subsequently served as president of the Supreme Court. At a conference in Yad Vashem in April 2002 about the legacy of Holocaust survivors, Aharon Barak spoke about the impact of the Holocaust on his life: "What lessons can be learned from these events? Schematically, I think that there are two types of lessons. One type is linked to the people of Israel and the State of Israel, to the centrality of this state in Jewish life, Zionism and the realization of the Zionist vision, to our power of endurance, to the impotence that characterized us, to the necessity that these things not happen again, to our inability to rely on other people and to our own need to defend ourselves, to the centrality of the State of Israel in our lives, and so on. I will never forget our flight from Lithuania to Poland, from Poland to Romania, from Romania to Hungary, from Hungary to Russian-controlled Austria, and from Russian-controlled Austria to British-controlled Austria, sneaking over the border. When we arrived, we crossed the border and were suddenly met by a division of Brigade soldiers bearing the symbol of our flag. Those are things that will never be forgotten. The view of Haifa from the ship when we first arrived is something I will always remember." On June 22, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Jonas Mozūraitis, Ona Mozuraitienė, Mefodija Čepienė, Alfonsas Mozūraitis, Zuzana Leskauskienė, and Zenonas Mozūraitis, as Righteous Among the Nations.