Second visit to Lithuania

Fania Brantsovskaya

Just back from Vilnius and my second trip to Lithuania. During this trip I interviewed Fania Brantsovskaya, Vilna Ghetto survivor and former partisan. It was an honour to meet this extraordinary, energetic 89 year-old woman who, despite all she has been through, emanates an inspiring humaneness and warmth. Mrs Brantsovskaya was able to tell me about life in the Vilna Ghetto in the most incredible and often harrowing detail. She and her family lived in the same street as Feigl, Leib, Basia and Rasza Daiches during the Vilna Ghetto period (see Vilna Ghetto and Ponar). Mrs Brantsovskaya survived by escaping the Ghetto to join the Jewish partisans in the neighbouring forests. No other members of her immediate family survived. This she made clear when she showed me the photo of her family which she keeps on a cabinet in a central spot in the living room. My sincere thanks go to Judita Glauberson who did the Russian-English interpreting for this interview. 

Fania Brantsovskaya, survivor of the Vilna Ghetto and former partisan

Svintsyan

The second highlight of the trip was a visit to Svintsyan, or Švenčionys as it is known in Lithuanian, the small town or shtetl my family came from before they moved to Vilnius. A chapter about Svintsyan will appear soon on this weblog.

Jewish cemetery in Švenčionys. 

I had read that the three synagogues of Svintsyan had been destroyed and I didn't expect to find anything regarding the rich Jewish past of this rural town 84 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital. It was therefore all the more surprising to find such a beautiful old Jewish cemetery aged by time but undisturbed by history. There were too many graves to search for the family name in the time we had but nevertheless it is a very special feeling to know that my ancestors are buried here. 

Family-related landmarks of Vilnius

As if these highlights weren't enough I also found the house that Feigl Lulinski lived in before she married Leib Daiches, number 18 Jono Basanavičiaus Street (then 16 Wielka Pohulanka Street) in Vilnius. This happens to be the same block of apartments in which the famous French writer, diplomat and WWII aviator, Romain Gary lived before he and his mother emigrated to Nice. Part of his novel 'La Promesse de l'aube' describes his childhood in Vilna. 

Plaque on 18 Jono Basanavičiaus Street in memory of Romain Gary. 

I also found the apartment block in which Betty's brother Sydney Lubin (Zelik Lulinski) and sister-in-law Sara lived before they left Vilna, incidentally in the same year as Romain Gary, in 1923.

14 Savičiaus Street (formerly 14 Sawicza Street [unreferenced])

Sara Lulinski was a sewing teacher in the Hilf Durkh Arbet (Help Through Work) institute run by the Yiddish educator, writer and journalist, Hirsz Abramowitz. Situated on a hill overlooking the city I have come to be very fond of, the former Hilf Durkh Arbet building stands on the Subačiaus Street (formerly 19 Subocz Street).

Mrs Brantsovskaya knew this institute well and told me that her aunt had received sewing lessons there.

A number of these details will be compiled into the chapter "Vilna, Wilno, Vilnius". So please don't forget to come back to the weblog once in a while to see how things are progressing.