Petronėlė Lastienė

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Petronėlė Lastienė
Born
Petronėlė Sirutytė

(1897-08-09)9 August 1897
Kaunas Polytechnic Institute
SpouseAdomas Lastas [lt]
AwardsRighteous Among the Nations
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Petronėlė Lastienė

Kaunas Ghetto during the Holocaust.[1][2]

During World War I, Lastienė worked as a nurse with the

Kaunas Polytechnic Institute
until her retirement in 1963.

Biography

Early life and education

Lastienė was born on 9 August 1897 in Dalginė [lt] (in present-day Marijampolė Municipality) of the Suwałki Governorate.[3] The same year, her father was arrested and deported to Siberia for participating in the Sietynas organization which smuggled the banned Lithuanian publications from East Prussia. He returned to Lithuania only after the press ban was lifted in 1905.[3] She was the youngest of eight children.[3] She was a childhood friend with Ona Matulaitytė, the future wife of Aleksandras Stulginskis.[4]

Lastienė attended a private girls' gymnasium established by Ksenija Breverniūtė in Marijampolė. The classes were held in Russian, but the school had a class on the Lithuanian language which was taught by Petras Kriaučiūnas. At school, she joined the Aušrininkai youth society and performed in its musical and theatrical events.[3]

After the start of World War I, she complete nursing courses. From July 1915 to September 1916, she was a nurse with the 10th Army in the present-day Belarus. In Moscow, she completed four semesters at the history and philology section of the Poltoratskaya's Higher Courses for Women [ru].[2]

Teacher

In 1918, she returned to Lithuania and became a teacher of history, geography, and Russian language[2] at Marijampolė Realgymnasium established by attorney Andrius Bulota.[3] She married poet Adomas Lastas [lt].[4] They both participated in amateur theater performances staged by the People's Theater organized by Albinas Iešmanta [lt].[3]

In 1923, she moved to

Soviet occupation of Lithuania.[2]

World War II and Gulag prisoner

Both of her brothers were deported by the Soviets during the

Nazi occupation of Lithuania, Lastienė hid several Jews, including her former student Tamara Lazerson, from Nazi persecution.[1] Yad Vashem recognized her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2000.[5] In summer 1944, she organized a Red Cross committee which operated a soup kitchen in Kaunas. Three of her sisters (including her brother-in-law Pranas Čepėnas) retreated to Germany ahead of the advancing Red Army and ended up in United States, Australia, and Canada.[3]

After the return of the Soviet regime in August 1944, Lastienė briefly taught at the

forced settlements. She was sent to the Uhtizhemlag [ru] in the Komi ASSR where she worked as a nurse at the camp's hospital.[2]

University lecturer

She returned to Lithuania in 1953, after the death of

Lietuvių enciklopedija published in Boston.[3] Vilnius University Library stores a personal collection of her documents (Fond 161).[7]

Lastienė died on 29 November 1981 and was buried in Liudvinavas cemetery next to her parents.[3]

Translated works

Lastienė also translated and published several fiction works: the play Inno del primo maggio by Pietro Gori (1920), the comedy The Wood Demon by Anton Chekhov (1921), the play Autumn Violin by Ilya Surguchov [ru] (1922), and the novel Nomads of the North by James Oliver Curwood (1937). She also translated two history textbooks, History of the Middle Ages (1923) and History of the Modern Ages (1925) by Robert Wipper.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Lastienė FAMILY". The Righteous Among The Nations. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tamašauskas, Albinas. "Lastienė Petronėlė". KTU veteranų klubas „Emeritus“ (in Lithuanian). Kaunas University of Technology. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Butkuvienė, Anelė (31 December 2011). "Užmirštas vardas" (PDF). Draugas. Kultūra (in Lithuanian). 47 (158): 2–3, 6.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9986-757-41-X
    .
  5. ^ "Lastienė Petronėlė (1897 - 1981)". The Righteous Among The Nations. Yad Vashem. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  6. ISBN 978-9986-23-155-4
    .
  7. ^ "Inventory list of collections". Vilnius University Library. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
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