Ona Šimaitė of Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, a librarian at Vilnius University

Vilnius University

Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....

, used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the Vilna Ghetto

Vilna Ghetto

The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...

.

Entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students, she smuggled in food and small arms (helped by Kazys Boruta

Kazys Boruta

Kazys Boruta was a Lithuanian writer and poet.His most notable work, Baltaragio malūnas , was adapted as a play, a movie Devil's Bride, and a ballet....

, amongst others) and other provisions and smuggled out literary and historical documents, and also served as a postman for the ghetto inhabitants, connecting them with the outer world. She also found people who faked documents for Jews, and brought out Jewish children from the ghetto and found families that hid them.

In 1944, the Nazis arrested and tortured Šimaitė. She was then deported to the Dachau concentration camp and later transferred to a concentration camp in southern France. She remained in France following her liberation.

External links

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Ona Simaite, Joop Westerweel, Irena Sendlerowa