When I started researching this project I discovered that many in the family had been named after Betty's two sisters, Dvora and Faigel, who perished in Lithuania. They don't have gravestones on which their names are chiselled. In a way however they do have living memorials embodied in the family members who are named after them.
I don't know what made Aunty Betty submit her testimony in 1977. Yad Vashem started collecting names of victims in the 50s. Perhaps it was an advert in the local Jewish newspaper. In any case when she filled in the forms she didn't know when her sister, Faigel's, daughters died. Moreover she didn't know exactly when they were born and she didn't know or remember their names.
The Lithuanian State Historical Archives got back to me on my search queries which I had submitted during my previous visit. They have found the birth records of Betty's nieces. The spelling of the names is in Polish because Vilnius, or in Polish Wilno, was part of Poland at the time:
Basia daughter of Lejb and Fejga (nee Lulinska) Dajches was born on 28th February 1928 in Wilno
Raisa daughter of Lejb and Fejga (nee Lulinska) Dajches was born on 31st December 1929 in Wilno
Raisa would have been 83 and Basia would have been 85 if they were still alive today. They both lie in mass graves: the one in Ponar, Lithuania; the other in Klooga, Estonia. They have no individual gravestone. I hope with this weblog to create a more personal memorial spot for them.
