www.lzb.lt
Abramas Leščius. the son of Chaimas, always stresses he’s from Raseiniai, Lithuania.
“I am a resident of Raseiniai. My mother travelled to doctor Levitanas in Kaunas to give birth to me. All Jewish women went to him to give birth. That’s what mother said. The roots of our family were in Seda and Mažeikiai. My great-grandparents, grandfathers and grandmothers lived there since ancient times, one may count it in centuries. I lived in Raseiniai with my parents until June 14, 1941. That day the Soviet Russians deported us. Why did they deport us? My father operated as a so-called middleman, he used to visit farmers and buy up linen and all sorts of grain. Then he brought it by car to a rich fellow in Klaipėda who bought everything from him. Father fed the whole family.
There were three of us children: my two sisters and I. Mother didn’t work. We were not rich, we lived moderately. I remember where we lived there was a synagogue in the yard to which my father and I went. Father was a good Jew, meaning, in his heart he was a Jew, and always helped with money if anyone asked, he prayed at synagogue and kept the Sabbath. Mother’s father was a rabbi in Seda, so she was more religious. I remember when we used to go to synagogue father and I would stop at an inn and when father took a drink mother would get very angry. Dad said there was a person in Raseiniai who used to say the Jews are bad, and perhaps he turned us in and that’s why we were deported. Many Jews lived in Raseiniai before the war.
