Nuo nacių, ar nuo sovietų? Telšių Ješivos studentų gelbėjimasis 1940 m

LTStraipsnyje analizuojamos Telšių ješivos užsienio studentų istorijos pirmosios sovietų okupacijos kontekste. Pagrindinis analizės šaltinis - Lietuvos centriniame valstybės archyve esančios asmens bylos, už kurių medžiagos atradimą ir pasidalinimą esu dėkingas kolegai Arvydui Pakštaliui. Nemažoje bylų dalyje nėra visos informacijos, susijusios su paskutiniais gyvenimo Lietuvoje etapais, - informacija nutrūksta 1940 m. pavasarį - užsieniečiams pratęsus leidimus gyventi Lietuvoje, bet koks jų tolimesnis likimas sovietiniu periodu duomenų kol kas nėra. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Telšių ješiva, pirmoji sovietinė okupacija, užsienio piliečiai ir karo pabėgėliai Lietuvoje 1940-1941 m., „gyvybės vizos", Č. Sugihara, J. Zwartendijkas.

ENThe article analyses the history of foreign students of the Telšiai Yeshiva in the context of the first Soviet occupation. The main source of the analysis is the personal files in the Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCSA), I am grateful to my colleague Arvydas Pakštalis for sharing this material. A large part of the files does not contain all the information related to the last stages of life in Lithuania - the information is interrupted in spring 1940 when the foreigners renewed their residence permits in Lithuania, but there is no information on their further fate during the Soviet period. In general, the rescue efforts and hopes of WWII refugees from Poland or foreigners living in Lithuania in 1940 in the face of the Soviet occupation were linked to the final entry visas issued by the Honorary Consul of the Netherlands, Jan Zwartendijk, to the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean and the Japanese transit visas issued by the Vice-Consul of the Japanese Consulate in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, which enabled access to the colonies (both diplomats were based in the then temporary capital Kaunas). In addition to these two foreign visas, a number of permits from the Soviet authorities were required to start the trip, and the only option for its execution was to use the services of the Soviet travel agency "Intourist", for which the payment was made only in US dollars.Part of the historiography confirms that some Telšiai Yeshiva students managed to escape and leave Soviet Lithuania with, for example, Ch. Sugihara's visa (although the full set of documents did not survive in LCSA or has not yet been found). Both the historiographical reconstructions and the personal files found in the LCSA clearly testify to the successful attempts of the four Dutch students of the Telšiai Yeshiva to leave Soviet Lithuania. These are Nathan Gutwirth, Lewi Sternheim and the brothers Chaim and Samuel Nussbaums, whose personal files contain requests and permits to leave Soviet Lithuania via Japan to the "Dutch India". All of them had Ch. Sugihara's and J. Zwartendijk's visas. In the case of Sugihara, the visas obtained can be cross-checked in the remaining list of issued visas by Ch. Sugihara in Kaunas. In the J. Zwartendijk case he destroyed all the visa documents in Kaunas before returning to the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. It should also be noted that in some cases family members of the above-mentioned individuals travelled with them - in the case of L. Sternheim, his mother, in the case of N. Gutwirt, his wife, in the case of Ch. Nussbaum wife and their two children got the visas. Thus, not directly through studies at the Telšiai Yeshiva, but through kinship ties, the number of Dutch citizens who have escaped from the Telšiai Yeshiva has more than doubled.