Sindikaitis Benediktas ; Daughter: Minelgienė Stasė (Sindikaitytė); Mother: Mozurkienė Kazimiera

Sindikaitis, Benediktas Mozurkienė, Kazimiera Minelgienė (Sindikaitytė), Stasė Farmer Benediktas Sindikaitis resided in the village of Stakiai, 25 km southeast of Raseiniai. His house stood on the hill, washed by two rivers, Mituva and Snietala. Benediktas’s family consisted of his mother, Kazimiera Mozurkienė and the 16-year-old daughter Stasė. On June 23, 1941 Germans occupied Stakiai and the vicinity. A small Jewish community, around 30 people, became subject to persecutions. On August 6 Lithuanian Nationalists ordered the farmers to dig a pit on the Mituva bank, which became the grave of the Stakiai Jews. The Jews’ property and even clothes that the victims took off were taken by their murderers. Only five Jews survived the massacre: two Fainshtein brothers, Moshe Vinnik and his sisters. They left for the forest, where, after a while, other Jews, the last remnants of their communities, joined them. Some farmers, among them Benediktas, helped the Jews with food. When it became cold some of the escapees used to spend the nights in Benediktas’s barn. The hosts had no means to feed the Jews, thus the latter had to obtain food in other ways, begging or stealing from neighboring farms. That caused rumors and led to a search at the Sindikaitises’ farm. Although the Jews were not found, Benediktas was arrested and imprisoned in Raseiniai. In the meantime the Fainshtein brothers and their Jewish comrades returned into the forest. They built bunkers and soon their camp housed up to 60 people, most of them runaways from the Kaunas ghetto. One of the camp dwellers was 17-year-old Freda Friedman, the native of Skaudvilė. While visiting the Sindikaitises with other Jews, she got to know Stasė Sindikaitytė, and the two girls became friends. They spent time together, at Stasė’s or in the forest, sometimes forgetting that the war was going on. One day, when Freda and Stasė were on their way to the forest, bearing bags loaded with food, they were stopped by thewhite-band-wearers (the Lithuanian nationalists). The girls were released after being questioned and reached the Jewish camp without further trouble. Since then they have become more cautious. On September 29, 1944 the eve of the liberation, Benediktas Sindikaitis was shot for his help to the Jews. Shortly before that the Jewish camp in the forest was discovered. Only a few of its dwellers survived. Freda Friedman (married name Karpul) was one of those who lived to see the liberation. In the end of the 1940s she left Lithuania and later settled in the USA. For many years she exchanged letters with her wartime friend Stasė (married name Minelgienė). On February 11, 2007 Yad Vashem recognized Benediktas Sindikaitis, his mother Kazimiera Mozurkienė and daughter Stasė Minelgienė as Righteous Among the Nations.