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According to Siros, the father with his bag ran out of the house, somehow trying to get on the train that would take him as far as possible from the approaching front.
“The babysitter told me that she almost collided with the approaching German army, sank into the forest and started running,” says Sira. – The Germans chased. My father realized that he would run away with a bag nearby, so he threw me with a bag next to the tree that was growing near the swamp. I thought it was safer there, because no one would go to the swamp to see an old bag. The father was lucky to escape. A day later he came back and discovered me. It’s just a miracle, how I didn’t cry about it in the bag and didn’t get the soldiers’ attention … “
Travel away from the front
Her father was fortunate to put Siras on the train that was moving away from the front, eastward, toward good people. He himself turned to the family who remained in Šiauliai.
The train ran for almost two weeks, and Syria was fed by strangers.
Sira eventually found herself in an orphanage in Velikiy Luki, near Moscow. Later, the girl learned that her entire family had been shot in the Šiauliai ghetto.
“Why did they kill our family, what was our fault? – Although many years later, Sira cannot stop the tears. – Because we are Jews? But we did not hurt anyone, my parents worked, they loved Lithuania, they spoke Lithuanian well, they were Lithuanian patriots … It is inhuman … As soon as I remember my parents and my sister, I immediately start crying. What did my mother or three-year-old sister do wrong to kill them? I don’t even have a picture of them, everything was destroyed during the war … “
Orphanage at Veliky Luke
“In the Velikiye Luke children’s home, the children were hungry in the truest sense of the word,” recalls Sira. – There was a war, there was no food, they gave us very little to eat. Just so we don’t die … I can’t imagine how I survived … “
Although exhausted by hunger, one day Sira saw a newcomer to the orphanage who needed even more help than she did.
“We brought in a two-year-old boy, Seriož, who couldn’t even walk, was very weak,” recalls Sira. – He just crawled or lay down on the bed, he didn’t even have the strength to get up. “Why doesn’t anyone help him?” I remember asking the babysitter. This only shook his hand. “It won’t help him anymore, he’ll die too late in a few days …”
The Syrians greatly regretted Seriosa. She sat next to his bed, stroking his head and crying.
She was five years old herself at the time, but the girl realized that she had to do something to prevent the baby from dying.
“I went to the kitchen at the orphanage and went directly to the chef,” recalls Sira. “Can I help you wash the dishes?” I asked him.
The chef looked closely at the girl.
“Why do you suddenly want to help me wash the dishes here?”
“If I wash well, maybe you can give me extra food to drink Seriožai … She is very weak, she will die if she cannot eat …”
“And how do you wash those dishes? After all, you can’t even get to the sink, “said the cafeteria worker, but Sira felt something in her heart.
“Put a chair next to me in the sink, I’ll get up and get there!” The girl did not withdraw.
The woman smiled.
“Well, let’s try … But look, if you wash yourself badly, your Serioža won’t receive anything …”
“Apparently, I washed those dishes well, I tried a lot, because I brought Seriožai some porridge in the bowl the first night,” recalls Sira. – I barely defended that porridge from other children who were also hungry. Serioža couldn’t even eat, she was so weak that I had to feed her. “
From that day on, Sira got up earlier every day and ran to the canteen of the orphanage. Not only were the dishes washed there, but the floors and pots were also scrubbed.
For a short time, the women in the kitchen were already preparing a daily ration for little Serioži.
“After a few weeks, Serioža got stronger and started walking,” recalls Sira. – He was very small, he was just over two years old, but he followed me wherever I went. I represented her mother …
At that moment, the war ended, the poor and hungry postwar years passed. The orphans of the orphanage grew up and at the age of majority began to leave the orphanage.
It was time for Sira to break up with Serioža, who was already an eighteen-year-old adult.
“I will always remember you, Sira”, the young man said goodbye with tears. – You saved me from death. If I ever have a daughter, I’ll call her by name … “
Trip to Vilnius
“When the children were sent to the orphanage, everyone’s name was written from where they came from, so the orphanage was forced to send the boy to his homeland when he reached the age of majority,” says Sira. – It was written in the documents that came from Lithuania, so I got on a train going to Vilnius and gave myself the benefit of several rubles. I entered the unknown … “
Upon reaching the Vilnius train station, Sira did not know where to go, where to hug. The city was unfamiliar to her, the girl had no loved ones there, did not even speak Lithuanian, because she had been deported from Lithuania at the age of just one year.
“I was standing at that train station not knowing where to go. I knew that my family was no longer in Šiauliai, so I had nothing to go there, – recalls Sira. – I sat at that station with my small suitcase on the bench and started crying. I didn’t know where I was going or how I would live later … After calming down, I started walking around the station with my suitcase, as if expecting something. I thought if I sat in a place, what kind of police would think that I was a stroller and lock myself in a detention center with thieves … “
While walking through the station, a woman approached Syria.
“Girl, do you have a place to spend the night?” He asked directly.
“No, not yet …” replied the girl confused. – But I …”
“I need a housekeeper,” he said without curtains. “Can you wash the floor?”
“Not only can I wash the floor, but I can also wash dishes, scrub pots … and I can eat and cook,” Sira began.
“Okay, let’s see,” the woman looked at her once more. – Let’s go!”
In fact, the woman took Sirah to her apartment and housed her. The apartment was large, so there was enough space.
It was found that the woman’s family lived better than those around her, it turned out that the woman’s husband was working as a Soviet official.
“I got hooked on work from day one,” recalls Sira. – I washed everything in the apartment, cleaned the carpet and even polished the windows. The woman who brought me seems to be happy. “I think you will stay with me for a long time,” he said.
Cooks school
“Although living with the hostess was not a bad thing, I didn’t want to wash the floor all my life,” says Sira. – I wanted to learn a specialty, to be something. I chose a chef school. I’ve been in the kitchen for many years, so that job attracted me more. I wanted and knew how to cook delicious foods, I wanted people to eat and drink, make delicious … “
Sira graduated with honors from the Cooking School and worked for many years at the prestigious Dainava restaurant in Vilnius.
“Despite the strict procedures and constant inspections at the restaurant, I really enjoyed working there,” recalls Sira. – I participated in competitions for the best chefs, feed the delegations of high-ranking foreign guests, I have many diplomas and thank you for the good work. They used to hang the whole wall in my room.
Sira’s salary was modest, but her husband earned well, so the family had enough. Everything changed when Sira and her husband retired.
“I earned little, 60 rubles, so I calculated the pension of that amount accordingly, regardless of the length of service,” says Sira. – The man earned more, paid him more and paid pensions. When we combined the two pensions, it seemed enough. But then the situation changed. The man had prostate cancer, we spent a lot of money on his medications … “
Fires
Eight years ago, a large fire broke out at night in Sira’s wooden house in Žvėrynas.
“We all ran out into the street while we were standing,” Sira recalls with tears. – I just got a passport. Numerous fire and ambulance vehicles joined, but the house was heavily burned. Our entire one bedroom lovingly furnished apartment burned down, everything we had. No one has determined the cause of the fire, maybe the cables caught fire, maybe something caught fire … The old wooden house, the boards are dry, the fire can easily break. After that we didn’t have a place to live for a while, we repaired those scars. We spent everything we had, but the fire damaged stove could not be rebuilt; it requires a lot of money, which we did not have then, nor do I have now … “
“Because there is no heating in the room, it is always very cold here, especially in winter,” the grandmother complains. – I have bronchial asthma, it is especially dangerous for me to freeze. I only heat with an electric radiator, but keeping it on longer is very expensive … I remember one winter, when it was more than twenty degrees outside, I kept the electric radiator longer, I received an electricity bill of € 220 per month. .. And that’s almost all of my pension .. So, if I want to have some money for food and medicine, I have to connect the radiator only in exceptional cases, when it is already unbearably cold. And then I sleep under some blankets, but still cold …
According to Sira, she requested heating from the Vilnius municipality, including the Seimas, but received no help from anywhere.
“When I called and started telling me about my problems, they interrupted me and asked me not to interfere with my work,” he said quietly. “So, I’m not bothering anyone … Maybe I’ll live somehow …”
Sira is no longer walking, she lies in bed and a future social worker prepares her to eat.
Maltese Aid
“The Maltese help me a lot,” says Sira with tears in her eyes. – Bring food, communicate. Great people, may God give you health! I have no loved ones, so I am anxious for their arrival … I know that I am not that old and I cannot avoid others needing help, but I am always very happy when they come. “
Maltese people currently serve more than 2,600 people in need of help, including Sira, single grandparents and the disabled in 42 Lithuanian cities, according to a press release.
We kindly invite you to support the activities of the Lithuanian Maltese by allocating 1.2 percent. from GPM.
More information: https://maltieciai.lt/12-proc-parama/
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