Antonina and Jonas Paulavičius photographs
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Antonina Paulavičius
- Jonas Paulavičius
Biographical History
Jonas Paulavičius worked as a carpenter and lived in Panemunė (Kaunas, Lithuania) with his wife Antonina and his children Danutė and Kęstutis. He had ties to the Communists in Lithuania and opposed the Nazis. After he was asked to shelter Yitzhak and Lene Shames along with their four year old son and his grandmother in a hidden space below their house, Jonas and Antonina decided to help shelter other Jews from the Kovno Ghetto and nearby labor camps. During the Holocaust, they hid 16 people including 12 Jews. In 1952 Jonas was murdered by an antisemitic neighbor. In 1983 the Paulavičius family was recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations."
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Musia Gershenman in 1996 and 1998. Musia was rescued by the Paulavičius family during the Holocaust. The collections previously accessioned as 1996.A.0159 and 1998.A.0295 were unified in 2018 under the new catalog number 1996.A.0159.2.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of three photographs of Antonina and Jonas Paulavičius and their family of Panemune, Lithuania. The Paulavičius family rescued 16 people during the Holocaust, including 12 Jews primarily from the Kovno Ghetto. There is also a post-war photograph of Antonina with 6 of the Jews the family helped rescue: Miriam Krakinowski, Yohanan Fein, Musia Gershenman, Tanya Ipp, David Rubin, and Aaron Neimark.
System of Arrangement
The collection is arranged as a single series.
People
- Paulavičius, Antonina.
- Gershenman, Musia.
- Paulavičius, Danutė.
- Paulavičius, Kęstutis.
- Paulavičius, Jonas.
Subjects
- Panemunė (Kaunas, Lithuania)
- World War, 1939-1945--Jews--Rescue--Lithuania--Kaunas.
Genre
- Document
- Photographs.