Memories of Mrs Galina:

Viktoras Pekarskis was born on May 17, 1900 in the town of Radviliškis, Šiauliai County.

His parents were Martynas and Varvara Pekarskis. His father worked on the railway and his mother was a housewife.

He had two brothers and a sister.

After completing two grades of primary school, he studied at the Radviliškis Railway School until 1915.

When the First World War broke out, he and his parents left for Russia. There he worked as a blacksmith's assistant. Later he got a job as a locksmith's apprentice in a railway depot. At the end of 1918, he returned to Lithuania and got a job at the Radviliškis railway depot.

On 10 June 1919 he volunteered for the second company of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of Vytautas the Great.

In September 1920 he was awarded the 1st (3rd) degree Cross of Vytis for his bravery on the Polish front at the Vaitkuškis manor.

On 7 November 1921 he was discharged from the army.

From 1922 to 1937 he worked in the Radviliškis railway in various jobs from a simple labourer to a steam locomotive driver.

In 1938, his health deteriorated (he underwent stomach surgery) and after two months of treatment in hospital and in a sanatorium in Varėna, he was diagnosed as 100% unable to work. As a result, he had to leave his job.

On 24 April 1938 he was awarded a pension of 198 litas.

Later, Viktoras Pekarskis worked in various odd jobs. With his knowledge of the profession of a locksmith and blacksmith, he was called upon to help out at the Radviliškis dugout, repairing digging machinery. He carried out various sheet metal works for individual customers. He contributed to the manufacture and installation of gutters for the Tytuvėnai church complex. Being very friendly and helpful, he helped friends and relatives.

In 1924 he married Eugenija Šeštokaitė, with whom he lived a beautiful 53-year life.

They brought up two daughters, Neonila and Taisija, and a son, Arkadijus. The son chose his father's profession and became a railwayman. Viktoras and Eugenija had six grandchildren.

V. Pekarskis was very fond of fishing and mushrooming. He used to ride his bicycle to all the forests of Radviliškis and always brought back a basket full of mushrooms. He was an indispensable dancer at family celebrations. He knew how to play the modolin and balalaika.

This man was meticulously tidy in everything. Especially in his workshop. Here, his tools were stacked and arranged in a certain order that no one could change. Everybody joked that the order was like a hospital operating room.

Viktor Pekarskis was rewarded:

1920m. 1920, first class, the Cross of Knight's Cross. In 1938, renamed to the Third Degree Cross of Knights of the Cross.

In 1928, the Independence Medal.

In 1929, the Lithuanian Volunteer Medal of the Creators of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

1929m. Medal of the Decade of the Latvian War of Liberation.

Received 11 hectares of land in Pakruojis district.

In March 2000, Viktoras Pekarskis was awarded the Medal for Justice and Honesty among Nations. He was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. His name is commemorated in the YAD VASHEM Memorial Museum.

2024m. Viktor Pekarsky was awarded the Cross of the Rescue of the Fallen.

Viktor Pekarskis died in 1977. He was buried in the Radviliškis City Cemetery.

From Life and Bread Bearing Hands, scrapbook 2:

The son of Lea Dulickaitė-Šeštokienė and Jurgis Šeštokas, Anatolij was born in Kaunas in June 1939. When the war broke out, Lea and Jurgis Šeštokas, carrying their child, tried to escape from the attacking Germans, but there was no hurry on foot, and the Wehrmacht troops caught up with them in Daugavpils. The Germans arrested Jurgis Šeštokas. Lea and her baby returned from Daugavpils to Radviliškis to find a hiding place for herself and her child. Eugenija and Viktoras Pekarskis took her in. Anatoij was taken care of by the Pekarskis' daughter, Neonila, who received documents that he was her illegitimate son. At that time, Lea Šeštokienė received news that her husband had been released and was living in Kaunas.

Lea left the child with Neonila and returned to Kaunas. She found her apartment empty and ransacked. She survived, but was denounced, arrested and imprisoned in the ghetto. After three months of hunger, she escaped on 25 October 1941 and returned to Radviliškis on foot. There she found her husband, who was living with his mother. It was dangerous to live together, because the police were checking her husband to see if he was living with his Jewish wife. Therefore, she had to hide with the Pekarskis. A couple of weeks later, it turned out that a neighbour, who could not be trusted, had discovered that a stranger was living with the Pekarskis. It was urgent to leave the house at night and run to his mother-in-law, Barbora Šeštokienė, but even here it was unsafe. Therefore, after only a month, Lea secretly reached Šeduva, where she was taken in by Stasė Padgurskienė. There, she hid for three months until she was spotted again by neighbours. Once again, she had to change her shelter urgently. Fortunately, a prior arrangement had been made with a farmer, Bronius Šereiva, from the village of Naujasodžiai, near Šeduva. There, Lea hid for ten months. From there, she was taken to the village of Bebrujėliai to a farmer, Vilius Dangis, who hid her and looked after her until the end of the war. When the Germans withdrew, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Lea Šeštokienė's family was reunited and settled in Radviliškis.

For three whole years, dozens of people risked their own lives and the lives of their relatives to save the Jewish woman Lea Šeštokienė and her son Anatolij from death. One executioner was enough to exterminate 100 Jews, while it took the enormous effort, knowledge, spiritual strength and determination of more than twenty people to save only two people from death.

Lea and her family will never forget their rescuers and their feat.

Sadly, only two people are alive today, those who rescued Lea Šeštokienė and Anatolijs Šeštokas. They are Neonila Pekarskytė-Pakalniškienė and Jadvyga Dangytė-Kaupienė, the daughter of Viliaus Dangis. Both live in Radviliškis.

From Life and Bread Bearing Hands, scrapbook 2,

State Jewish Museum of Vilnius Gaon. Vilnius, 1999

Neonila Pekarskytė-Pakalniškienė remembers:

We lived in a small town in Radviliškis and knew each other well. After the marriage of my mother Eugenija Pekarskiene's brother Jurgis Šeštokas to the Jew Lea Dulickaite (Šeštokienė), our families became good acquaintances.

In 1941, when the German army occupied Lithuania and the persecution of the Jews began, Lea Šeštokienė came from Kaunas, tired and without her husband. My parents hid her. Such actions were very risky and required the approval of all family members. There was no special hiding place for L. Šeštokienė in our house; she hid in a small room on the high floor. I took responsibility for the care of Anatolij, the son of Lea and Jurgis Šeštokas. The child was very young, born in June 1939. He stayed in our family throughout the war, and got used to me - he called me "Mama".

Soon afterwards, Lea left for Kaunas and found out that her husband had returned. She didn't come back for a long time - we were already afraid that she was no longer alive. After a while she came back, but it was no longer safe for her in Radviliškis, so my father took her to the village of Šeduva, to Padgurskienė.

In a small town like Radviliškis before the war, one neighbour knew almost everything about the other. It was very difficult to hide a person. At that time, hiding Jews was punishable by death, and the neighbours were diverse - of different views and beliefs, many of them anti-Jewish. During the entire period of the German occupation, Šeštokienė had to change her place of residence four times just because of the suspicions of the neighbours.

Our family's approach to rescuing Šeštokienė and her son Anatolij was based on the principle of neighbourly love and categorically opposed the genocide perpetrated by the occupiers and the local Lithuanian administration. After the war, the Šeštokas family and I became like relatives, we meet very often and communicate to this day.

Radviliškis, 1998