{"id":4799,"date":"2026-08-21T08:04:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atmintiesvietos.azuolynobiblioteka.lt\/memory-office\/judita-mackeviciene\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:04:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:04:36","slug":"judita-mackeviciene","status":"publish","type":"memory-office","link":"https:\/\/atmintiesvietos.azuolynobiblioteka.lt\/en\/memory-office\/judita-mackeviciene\/","title":{"rendered":"Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117, a member of the Kaunas Jewish community, tells what her house in Laisv\u0117s Avenue used to look like before the war, what she used to do in her apartment in the ghetto when her family would go to work, and how people were hidden during the war.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201dI had many photos in the ghetto house. They became toys when my parents would go to work and my little brothers to school. When being alone in the ghetto, I was mostly afraid that some man with a gun would come and shoot me down. That fear hasn\u2019t disappeared up until this day, but now it is different\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residents of the Kaunas ghetto learned about the children’s action in advance. Parents were getting ready to hide their children; they looked for acquaintances that could shelter the kids. Men would rip holes in barbed wire fences to carry children from the ghetto. I was taken away in an empty potato bag. I remember how I got into the bag, my Dad closed it and passed me through the hole in the fence to the people. I did not know those people, but they were good\u201d.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the best memory from the ghetto is this \u2013 the pillows on the children\u2019s beds were arranged in a way that they reminded me of a triangle, so my older brother and I would imagine that the pillows were a little horse. We would sit on them and pretend that we were riding a horse\u201d.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do I remember the most from life in the ghetto? It is a constant fear, inhumane hunger, and suffering from sadness and loneliness. My Dad kept trying to provide food for us, but there was no way of how to transport it. However, the Lithuanians helped us. They used to trade food for clothes and other things. I\u2019m grateful for that, because the food we got helped us survive\u201d.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sheltered together with another Jewish child. The room in which we lived was very narrow and long. We both used to sleep in a narrow bed. I was on one side of the bed, and he was on the other. There were piles of sheets and pillows on the bed above me, which was how we were hidden; the woman who sheltered us would only allow us to stick our noses out. We were not even allowed to talk with each other. That\u2019s how I got out of the ghetto\u201d.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

“When I was young I used to live with my custodian in M. Valan\u010diaus Street. There was a market in the old town that was always full of people. Rumours would spread very easily. Therefore, the women that worked in the market soon knew that I was Jewish. However, I was christened according to Christian traditions, so I became a Catholic. The women would warn me not to go back to my real family, because if I wanted to retract the christening and become Jewish again, then boiling milk would be poured down my throat because that is the only way to take the christening back.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

“When I lived in Kaunas I used to go to church, I was christened. When I was younger, I used to believe in God. Now I have my doubts. Why would God allow all the terrible things to happen? If I were the almighty God, I would paralyze the hands of every person that raises a gun against someone. They would not want to touch a gun again.”<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

Judita Pacait\u0117 Mackevi\u010dien\u0117<\/h2>\n

Judita was born in 1936 in Kaunas. Together with her parents, Fi\u0161elis Pacas and Hind\u0117 Hesait\u0117 Pacien\u0117, as well as her brothers Becalelis and Elijus, they lived in this city up until World War II in a two story building in Laisv\u0117s Avenue (currently Laisv\u0117s Avenue 75). Her father used to run a crockery store on the ground floor. In July 1941, Judita and her family were taken to the Kaunas ghetto and at the end of 1943 she was smuggled out in a potato bag. Vincas and Teofil\u0117 Valionis took custody of her and she stayed in their home until the war ended. Afterwards, various families in villages took care of Judita. Finally, Veronika Bandien\u0117, who Judita calls her second mother, took the girl back to Kaunas. Judita lived with Veronika on M. Valan\u010diaus Street up to the day she got married.<\/em><\/p>\n

Date of the interview – 13\/10\/2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117, a member of the Kaunas Jewish community, tells what her house in Laisv\u0117s Avenue used to look like before the war, what she used to do in her apartment in the ghetto when her family would go to work, and how people were hidden during the war. \u201dI had many photos in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"global_cat":[],"memory_office_cat":[21],"class_list":["post-4799","memory-office","type-memory-office","status-publish","hentry","memory_office_cat-interviu-su-tautinemis-kauno-bendruomenemis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJudita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117 - atmintiesvietos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117 - atmintiesvietos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117, a member of the Kaunas Jewish community, tells what her house in Laisv\u0117s Avenue used to look like before the war, what she used to do in her apartment in the ghetto when her family would go to work, and how people were hidden during the war. \u201dI had many photos in the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atmintiesvietos.azuolynobiblioteka.lt\/en\/memory-office\/judita-mackeviciene\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"atmintiesvietos\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atmintiesvietos.azuolynobiblioteka.lt\\\/en\\\/memory-office\\\/judita-mackeviciene\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/atmintiesvietos.azuolynobiblioteka.lt\\\/en\\\/memory-office\\\/judita-mackeviciene\\\/\",\"name\":\"Judita Mackevi\u010dien\u0117 - 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