Vuškan Vladislav

Vuškan (Vuškans), Vladislav Vladislav Vuškan, a Pole by origin, managed a distillery in Preiļi (Rēzekne County, Daugavpils District), and lived alone in a private home on the town’s outskirts. Both Poles and Latvians resided in the town, though Jews constituted about half the population. Immediately after the town’s conquest by the Germans, on June 28, 1941, they and their local collaborators launched a campaign of abuse and humiliation against the Jews, and a month later began the mass murder of its Jews. With the start of these executions, Yosef Gakker, the owner of a jewelry store, and three other local residents – Faivish Shafir, Zalman and Rafael Ozband – fled to Vladislav Vuškan’s house and asked him for shelter. He agreed to take them in if they would tell him where their money was hidden. A few days later, more Jews knocked on his door: Simon and Mikhlya Khagi and their sons, Arik and Motya. Mikhlya’s father, Kazriel Kagan, had been a friend of Vladislav before the war. The Khagis looked desperate, and Vladislav agreed to take them in, but on the same condition: that they hand over their money and that of the grandfather, who had already been murdered. On the first night of their stay in his home, Vladislav went to the place they had indicated and took all the valuables. In the winter, he hid the fugitives in the basement, and in the summer in the attic. At the end of 1941, Yosele Gakker died in Vladislav’s home and was buried in the yard. Around that same time, Vladislav informed the remaining seven fugitives that he could no longer provide them with food. Moreover, residents of the town had become suspicious because they noticed that he was buying quantities of food far in excess of one person’s needs. Two days later, Vladislav’s sister, who worked for the police, told him that his house was going to be searched. He therefore told the Jews to quickly hide somewhere else. They fled to the abandoned synagogue in the center of the town. Two days later,after the search of Vuškan’s home failed to turn up anyone but himself, the fugitives decided to return there. He did not let them down and accepted them back. In the winter of 1943, the Vuškan house was subjected to another search, this time without prior warning. By chance, the basement-hiding place was not discovered. For three years, the Jews hiding in there had to go out at night in order to obtain food, which they got by pilfering local farms. During the summer vacation, Vladislav’s son Liova, 11, came to stay with him from Riga, where he lived with his mother. The boy knew about the Jews who were hiding in the house and was aware of their plight. He picked mushrooms and fruits in the forest and left them at the entrance to the basement. Despite his young age, he kept the secret to himself. In November 1943, nine-year-old Arik Khagi died of hunger and exhaustion. The following spring, as the Red Army approached and the bombardments intensified, Vladislav’s sister moved in with him. Unbeknownst to her brother, she told the police about the fugitives he was sheltering. All six Jews were arrested. A few days later, a German unit took them to the forest for execution. However, the soldiers took pity on them, fired into the air, and told the fugitives to take refuge in the forest until the arrival of the Soviets. Vladislav, too, fled in the wake of these developments, and hid until the region was liberated in July 1944. The six survivors, who were suffering from severe malnutrition and were in poor physical condition, required lengthy rehabilitation after their liberation. The act of rescue lasted three long and anxious years. After the liberation, it turned out that Vladislav Vuškan’s six survivors were the only Jews who lived through the Nazi occupation of Preiļi. The survivors maintained friendly relations with Vladislav until his death in 1953. On May 22, 2004, Yad Vashem recognized Vladislav Vuškan as Righteous Among the Nations.