I was born in the Kovno ghetto during the war. At the time it was beginning to be dangerous for the Jews. I was given an optimistic name, meaning “spring.” My parents had a secret hiding place under a sofa during the first two years of my life. When that was no longer safe, I was sedated, placed in a sack and loaded into a wagon under some hay. I was given to a woman named Letulena, who ran a boarding house for high school girls in a nearby town. The woman soon became fearful of her safety of hiding a Jewish child. One of her students, Konstanjia took me to her parents’ farm to be hidden. My grandmother and uncle found me after the war by discovering a woman wearing a jacket made from the same unusual wool plaid as my blanket.
On Yom HaShoah, 2012, my husband and I traveled to Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania where we were present to see the Israeli Counsel present to Konstanjia Povilaikis/Babinskenia, the inclusion of her mother and grandparents as Righteous Among the Nations. Her three daughters, Regine, Auzelina, and Virginija, accepted the award in her behalf.