Jewish aid and rescue
EN“There is a legend that 36 righteous people sustain the world. They are no different from ordinary mortals and often do not feel that they are righteous. But if any one of them is missing in any given generation, human pain would destroy even the souls of newborn babies and people would drown in a sea of despair. The righteous are at the heart of humanity, where our sufferings accumulate like in a bottomless well.” Jewish historian Yitzhak Arad wrote: “Throughout the war, the Allies (Washington, Moscow and London) did not make a single move to save the dying Jews. Yes, they fought Germany and accelerated victory. But millions of Jews across Europe had no time to wait for victory. The fascists managed to exterminate 6 million Jews before their defeat.” Later, he added: “In the occupied territory of the Soviet Union, there were no organized anti-fascist or other underground movements to help the Jews. There was such assistance, albeit not on a very large scale, in some Western European countries and in the Polish underground movement, where there was a small group called Żegota.” It is difficult to disagree with Arad and his conclusions, especially since he explored individual cases of saving Jews in the general process of their extermination. When you look at these cases, you see that it was not the ones standing on every corner shouting: “Let there be light!” who did the rescuing. Rather, it was the ones who managed to keep the fragile candle of life from being blown out in the darkness.Jews came to the Lithuanian lands in the 14th century during the reign of Gediminas, which was a difficult period for European Jews. Over the centuries, they created a relatively small yet very distinctive community, which long held an honorable place in the entire history of the Jewish nation. In every new location, Jewish history did not start anew, but was just a continuation of the overall development of the Jewish people over more than 5,000 years. With their solid spiritual foundation and wealth of experience, there is no place where the Jews have ever completely dissolved into the history of the other people whom they lived among. They have always adapted to the new environment and conditions, while preserving their faith, culture, and history. Whole generations of Jews and Lithuanians lived, worked, and raised their children side by side, in perfect harmony. In 1939, there were approximately 240,000 Jews living in Lithuania. A startling 94 of every 100 perished. The Baltic lands had not seen such an annihilation of a nation since the Prussian uprisings. [p. 445-446].
