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Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė papers

Document | Digitized | Accession Number: 1996.2.6

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    Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė papers
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    Overview

    Description
    The collection primarily documents Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė’s wartime experiences as a Lithuanian partisan in the Kovno Ghetto and Rudninkai Forest, and her postwar profession as a professor and Holocaust scholar. It also includes photographs and research materials related to her family, including her sister Alice Ginaitė.

    Prewar material includes family photographs, copies of identification documents belonging to Sara’s sister Alice Ginaitė, and a student identification card issued to Sara’s relative Leiba Virovitchius. One of the photographs is a depiction of Sara and her mother with Franutė Granskytė, who worked as a housekeeper for Sara’s parents in Kaunas, Lithuania. Franutė was later recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Tanya Viroviciene during the war.

    Wartime material includes photographs depicting Sara with the “Death to Occupiers” partisan group in Lithuania, a certificate issued by the Soviet Red Army affirming Sara served as a partisan during World War II, and copies of instructions issued to members of the Anti-Fascist Organization.

    Postwar material includes family photographs, obituaries,restitution paperwork, correspondence with museum curators, copies of speeches and lectures, an oral history transcript, clippings, and material related to several of Sara’s Holocaust related books.
    Date
    inclusive:  1917-2018
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė
    Collection Creator
    Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė
    Biography
    Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė (1924-2018) was born Sara Ginaitė on March 17, 1924 in Kovno, Lithuania (Kaunas, Lithuania) to Josif Ginas (1892-1941) and Rebecca Virovichiute Giniene (1896?-1945). She had one sister, Alice Ginaite (1918-2006, born Zlata Ginaite, later Alice Benn). Her parents married in Lithuania in 1915. Sara’s father worked as an intermediary between several foreign businesses that sold raw materials and Lithuanian factory owners. Before the war Sara attended a Jewish high school. Her family was not orthodox, but was observant of Jewish holidays.

    The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Lithuania in June 1940. Sara’s family was evicted from their apartment by the Red Army. Her sister married Philip Benjaminovichius (d. 1969) in January 1941. Germany violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union in June 1941, and invaded and occupied Lithuania the same month. After the invasion, anti-Communist pro-German Lithuanians initiated a violent pogrom against Jews in Kovno, whom they accused of being Soviet sympathizers. Three of Sara's uncles, Isaac, Solomon and Abrasha Virovitchius, were murdered during the pogrom. Their mother, Malke Viraviciene, died shortly afterwards. Sara and her family were forced into the Kovno Ghetto by August 1941. She soon joined the underground resistance group Anti‐Fascist Organization (AFO). Sara married Misha Rubinsonas (1923-1977), an active member and leader of the youth branch of the AFO, in the Kovno Ghetto on November 7, 1943. His sister, Sonia Rubinsonaite (d. 1945), was also active in the AFO.

    In December 1943, Sara, Misha, and a group of 15 others escaped the ghetto and lived in the nearby Rudninkai Forest, forming a partisan group named the “Death to Occupiers.” The partisans gained an additional 300 members by the spring of 1944. The Kovno Ghetto was liquidated in July 1944. Sara’s mother and sister were deported to Stutthof, and Alice’s husband Philip was deported to Dachau.

    Sara, along with a detachment of the resistance group, marched southeast to Vilnius, Lithuania, where they assisted other resistance fighters in liberating the city. After its liberation, Sara and Misha settled in Vilnius. Their daughter Anya was born in 1946, and the couple adopted Tanya, whose parents were relatives of Sara’s mother, and were killed during the Holocaust. Sara became a political economics professor, and later moved to Canada. Her book Resistance and Survival : The Jewish Community in Kaunas 1941-1944 was published in 1999.

    Sara's father Josif had cancer, and died in Kovno Ghetto in 1941. Her mother Rebecca died in Stutthof. Alice and her husband both survived the Holocaust and moved to Canada in 1952.

    Physical Details

    Extent
    1 box
    2 oversize folders
    System of Arrangement
    The Sara Ginaite-Rubinson papers are arranged as a single series.

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė and Estate of Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė donated the Sara Ginaitė-Rubinsonienė papers to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2019. The accessions numbered 1996.2, 2004.162, 2005.471, 2007.219, 2019.268.1, and 2019.509.1 have been incorporated into this collection.
    Primary Number
    1996.2.6
    Record last modified:
    2024-03-12 15:33:41
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn95120