Damanskaitė Stanislava

Damanskaitė, Stanislava Kulevičiute, Stefanija Žukauskas, Kipras Žukauskienė, Julija Damanskas, Petras Damanskienė, Pranė The Jewish Shapira family lived in the village of Naudvaris, in the vicinity of Kelmė, Šiauliai County. Isaak Shapira, the head of the family, managed a mill; his wife Taibe with her unmarried sister Anna Zilberg occupied themselves with the household chores. The Shapiras had two children, Iosif and Dora, eleven and eight years of age. On July 25, the German army occupied the area. The Lithuanian police expelled the Jews out of their homes, forcing them to move into two estates that belonged to Jewish families and now were turned to detention camps. On August 22, Isaak Shapira was shot; his wife, children and some other relatives managed to flee. For the next five weeks they hid in the forest, getting food from a farmer named Salemonas whom they generously paid. In the meantime, Iosif and Dora’s nanny, 52-year-old Stanislava (Stasė) Damanskienė, upon her own initiative, searched for them in order to provide help. Every day, despite the cold and rain, she wandered the woods, hoping to find their trace. Her friend, Stefanija Kulevičiutė, who used to work for the Rosenfelds who were the Shapiras’ relatives, joined Stasė in the search, until she hurt her foot and became bedridden for quite a while. Stasė’s efforts were finally successful and she took Dora and Iosif back to her place in Kelmė. She hid the children in her little rented apartment on the outskirts of town and started looking for hiding places for the others. Unfortunately, time was too short: the police found the Jews in the forest and shot them on the spot. Iosif and Dora stayed with Stasė for three weeks; then she took them to different families ready to risk their lives. Iosif became a shepherd in a small village where he worked hard and rarely saw people at all. Many months passed until Stasė succeeded in finding a better place for the boy, where the hosts would carefor him. Dora was first transferred to Stefanija Kuleviciutė. In a tiny room that Stefanija rented from the Church’s janitor, Dora was not allowed to make any noise, in order not to draw attention. The girl spent the winter of 1941 – 1942 in the village of Zakeliškiai with poor and very pious sisters Julija and Elena Kaušyte*, who sheltered many homeless and persecuted, among them Jews. Then Dora went back to Kelmė, hidden periodically either by Stefanija or by Stasė, her former nanny. In fall 1942, Dora was welcomed by Julija and Kipras Žukauskas from the village of Svitriškes near Vaiguva. Their five children -- Stefa, Vytautas, Genė, Valė and Aloysas -- were glad to have a “new sister”, who was now called by the Christian name, Marija. The Žukauskases had their own house, garden and a big courtyard with agricultural buildings, with many farm animals. The Jewish girl could live there openly but only until foreigners were seen approaching the house. When round-ups in the area became more frequent, Dora could not leave her hiding place in a hayloft for days. The children Genė and Aloysas came to the hayloft to relieve her loneliness. After some time, Stasė transferred Dora again, first back to her own place in Kelmė, then to Stefanija’s, and, after a while, to her acquaintance outside of town. She never left the girl at one place for a long time out of fear that she’d be traced. In the spring of 1944, Dora was sheltered by Stasė’s brother, Petras Damanskas, who lived with his wife, Pranė, in the village of Kirkliai. They hid, fed and cared for Dora until the liberation in October 1944. Not trusting the neighbors, the Damanskises did not allow her to leave the house during daytime; when danger was in the air, they hid Dora in the potato cellar, where she sometimes had to spend days and even nights. Their grown-up daughter Valerija often joined the Jewish girl to calm her fears. After the liberation, Stasė brought Iosif and Dora back to their parents’ homeand did everything she could to return their life to normal, to educate them, as their parents would have done. After finishing school, Dora moved to Kaunas, Iosif settled in Kelmė, and both established families. In the 1970s Dora (married name Nidel) immigrated to Israel. On April 26, 2006, Yad Vashem recognized Stanislava (Stasė) Damanskaitė, Stefanija Kulevičiutė, Julija and Kipras Žukauskas, and Pranė and Petras Damanskas as Righteous Among the Nations.