Tag #116400 - Interview #78774 (Fania Brantsovskaya)

We knew there were Soviet prisoners-of-war kept in the open air. On 31st August my friend visited me to collect things for the prisoners. I keep admiring our being brave: we were young and the young have no fear. My friend Pupa Kavergi and her grandmother lived in the district of the old medieval Jewish ghetto [36]. Her mother died at childbirth and her father, an outstanding Bund member, had passed away some time afterward. She left shortly before the curfew started ignoring my invitation to stay overnight. On 1st September fascists stage an incident to cause provocation: on the corner of Dijoy Street they left two dead Germans and accused the locals of having killed them. At night all residents of this neighborhood were taken to Ponary or the Lukishki prison [the oldest prison built in the center of Vilnius during the tsarist regime in the 1860s. Its prisoners were those who were not loyal to the regime. The prison is still operating today]. Pupa was one of the first to perish. I'm still tortured by the thought that she might have survived had I insisted on her staying.