Ona Šimaitė (6 January 1894 – 17 January 1970) was a

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

librarian at Vilnius University who used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the

Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland. During the approximatel ...

during World War II. She is recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations.

Life

Born in Akmenė, Lithuania on 6 January 1894 and later educated in Moscow, Šimaitė became a librarian at Vilnius University in 1940. In 1941, the Nazis invaded Lithuania and created the

. She began entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students. Over the next three years, she smuggled small arms (helped by

Kazys Boruta Kazys Boruta (6 January 1905, in Kūlokai, near Marijampolė – 9 March 1965, in Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or ...

, amongst others) as well as food and other provisions; smuggled out literary and historical documents for the

Paper Brigade The Paper Brigade was the name given to a group of residents of the Vilna Ghetto who hid a large cache of Jewish cultural items from YIVO (the Yiddish Scientific Institute), saving them from destruction or theft by Nazi Germany. Established in 1 ...

; and also served as a mail carrier for ghetto inhabitants, connecting them with the outside world. She also found people who would forge documents for Jews, offered her home as a temporary refuge for Jews, and smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto to families that she found who agreed to hide them. In April 1944, the Gestapo arrested Šimaitė and tortured her. A ransom paid by the rector of the university spared her from immediate execution, and she was deported to

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

in Germany, then later transferred to an internment camp at Ludelange in France. After the camp was liberated by the Allies, Šimaitė remained in France, working as a librarian, except for a period from 1953 to 1956 spent in Israel. On 15 March 1966, the Israeli organisation Yad Vashem recognized Šimaitė as a Righteous Among the Nations,File M.31.2/191. planting a tree in her honour. Šimaitė died outside of Paris on 17 January 1970 and, per her request, her body was donated to science. In 2015, Lithuania's first street named in honor of a Righteous Among the Nations was unveiled in Vilnius; the street is named ''Šimaitės Street'', after Šimaitė.

Notes

:''This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL.''

References

External links

Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite, by Julija SukysOna Šimaitė papers
at th
Hoover Institution Archives
*United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Ona Simaite, Joop Westerweel, Irena Sendlerowa
* 1894 births 1970 deaths Academic librarians Lithuanian emigrants to France Lithuanian librarians Women librarians Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations Dachau concentration camp survivors Vilna Ghetto Lithuanian people of World War II Female anti-fascists {{Lithuania-bio-stub