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Oral history interview with Ona Balaišienė

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1998.A.0221.22 | RG Number: RG-50.473.0022

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    Oral history interview with Ona Balaišienė

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Ona Balaišienė, born in 1911 in Andrioniškis, Lithuania, describes her family; her interactions with the prewar Jewish community of her town; living in Anykščiai, Lithuania and working in Debeikiai, Lithuania during the war; giving food to Jews in the ghetto of Anykščiai; a partisan guard who tried to have her and her husband executed; a German language teacher who convinced the German soldiers to release her and her husband; her encounters with residents of the ghetto; the structure of mass killings; her fear for her children; Jewish community members and Soviet employees fleeing east; the shooting of captured Jews; mass deportations of Lithuanians; her emotional breakdown after the first mass execution of Jews; hiding from partisans if they approached her house; the cruelty of the German soldiers; interactions between partisans and Jews; the looting of the Jewish ghetto by local townspeople; her husband refusing to purchase stolen property; partisans living in Jewish-owned houses; and the prosecution of the superintendent of the ghetto for collaborating with the Germans.
    Interviewee
    Ona Balaisiene
    Interviewer
    Saulius Berzinis
    Date
    interview:  1998 April 20
    Geography
    creation: Vilnius (Lithuania)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Lithuanian
    Extent
    2 videocasettes (Betacam SP) : sound, color ; 1/2 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Balaišienė, Ona.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was directed and supervised by Nathan Beyrak.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:41:53
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn508576

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