Ignas & Elena Anuzis & Family

Ignas and Elena Anuzis lived in the old city of Vilna, where they willingly sheltered Hasya Geselevich, nee Grin. Hasya had previously been sheltered in a nearby monastery by Catholic nuns before being moved to the Anuzis’s home. She stayed with the Anuzis’s as a Lithuanian “cousin,” going to their son Ceslavos’s house in the country during raids and searches. The Anuzis’s also helped many others. They rescued two Jewish girls from the Vilna ghetto and found them shelter in Lida, Belarus. They went on to provide false documentation for other ghetto escapees. In 1944, as the front drew near, Ignas and Elena left Lithuania. Hasya lived in Latvia under a false identity until liberation. The Anuzis family immigrated to Michigan after the war, where Hasya had the chance to visit them. On August 7, 2000, Yad Vashem recognized Ignas and Elena Anuzis and Ceslovas and Elena Anuzis as Righteous Among the Nations.

Edited from Yad Vashem, Righteous Among the Nations Database

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