Ritenis Jekabs & Maiga

Ritenis, Jekabs Ritene, Maiga The Jewish Lifshits family resided in Liepaja, on 10, Veca Ostmala Street. The parents, Faive and Feiga Lifshits, traded wood; their children, Irma (b. 1920) and Shlomo (b. 1923) attended the Jewish gymnasium. After the Germans occupied the area, all male Jews were assigned to forced labor. One day in August 1941 Faive and Shlomo did not return home from work; they were shot in Shkede, together with other workers. After a short while Feiga and Irma found themselves in a temporary detention camp in the village of Otan’ki, near Nitza. When the work they were doing came to an end and the Jews were transported back to Liepaja, the mother and daughter decided to flee. They paid one of the guards with a golden ring and earrings, and he let them slip away unnoticed. Feiga and Irma began wandering the countryside. One day they came upon an isolated farmstead that belonged to the childless farmers Maiga and Jekabs Ritenis. The couple took pity on the Jewish women and offered them shelter. Jekabs constructed two hideouts for them: the one inside the house, behind the Russian stove, and another close to the forest, in a haystack. In the middle of the haystack Jekabs built some sort of a wooden frame, which was then covered with cow manure for warmth. Feiga and Irma would crawl inside when strangers approached the farmstead. On more than one occasion they spent many hours lying there motionless, side by side. In winter, when it was too cold to be outside, the Lifshitses would come inside the house. They stayed with the Ritenises throughout the years of the German occupation. The hosts fed and clothed them and cared for their every need, never once asking to be paid back. After the war Feiga and Irma Lifshits returned to Liepaja. Irma got married and had children. She and her family would visit her rescuers at least once a year. Following Maiga’s death, Jekabs stayed with Irma’s family in the city for some time. Irma (married nameCharnaya), passed away in 1979. Jekabs Ritenis passed away three years later. On December 15, 2009 Yad Vashem recognized Jekabs and Maiga Ritenis as Righteous Among the Nations.