Henia Lewin was just a toddler when her parents placed her in a suitcase and smuggled her out of the Kovno ghetto.

After Nazi Germany invaded their hometown in summer 1941, Henia and her parents were forced into the Kovno (Kaunas) ghetto in Lithuania. Meanwhile, German authorities and their Lithuanian collaborators began to carry out mass killings of Jews.

Henia's parents faced a difficult choice—try to get Henia out or stay together. As regular mass killings continued, her parents made their decision—Henia was sedated and successfully smuggled out of the ghetto. Henia's mother saved many other children this way too.

For the next two years, Henia lived with a Lithuanian family. After the war, she was reunited with her parents, who had escaped the ghetto and survived the Holocaust in hiding.

Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Henia Wisgardisky Lewin. Continue reading

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