Born in Šaukėnai (Shukyan), Lithuania
Aryeh was born to a relatively wealthy family in Shukyan. The family owned the town lumber mill, a nice home and a fish pond.
Soviet occupation of Lithuania
On June 15, 1940 the Soviets occupied Lithuania and annexed Lithuania in August of 1941.
German invasion of Lithuania
Operation Barbarossa, the Axis attack on the Soviet Union included an attack into Soviet occupied Lithuania.
Shukyan Jews confronted
- July 25 – Lithuanians demand 50,000 rubles in 24 hours or Jews expelled
- July 27 – Rounded up in synagogue and sent to farm
- July 28 – Massacre of 400+ Jews in forest 5km out of town
All Jews from Shukyan sent to Žagarė Ghetto
All remaining Jews from Shukyan and surrounding towns are rounded up from the farms where they were working to Žagarė where they are settled in the ghetto.
Escapes from ghetto
Aryeh escapes from ghetto along with approximately a dozen others and finds refuge in the forest around Shukyan, sending food and care packages back to the Žagarė ghetto.
Jews that are in hiding convert
Most of the Jews in hiding around Shukyan are convinced to convert by the local Catholic Priest who promises to not identify them to the German occupiers.
All Jews in Žagarė ghetto are massacred
About 3,000 Jewish men, woman and children are massacred in the town square.
Germans arrive in Šaukėnai looking for Jews
- Aryeh escapes into the forest ahead of the Germans looking for Jews
- All the Jews that had converted are executed and buried in the Catholic cemetary
Arrives at Šiauliai (Shavli) Ghetto
Aryeh arrives at the Shavli Ghetto along with two others from his village of Shukyan.
He receives a job at the Frankel leather factory (outside of the ghetto walls).
Šiauliai (Shavli) Ghetto Massacre
“If there is a hell on earth, this was it.”
– Kalman Lurie
Large scale action in the Ghetto by Ukranian and Lithuanian sympathizers:
- Gathered 579 children, 191 elderly, 26 handicapped
- Brutally ripped children from parents and caretakers
- All shipped to Auschwitz where they were all killed.
Escaped to forest
Escaped from ghetto and hid in forest for 6+ months.
Lived in barns, pigstys, charcoal pits and in the forest.
Soviet Liberation of Lithuania
The Soviet Army liberated Lithuania in July of 1944. Masha and Aryeh come out of hiding in the forest and help support a group of orphan children in their studio apartment in Šiauliai.
Arrive at refugee camps in Italy
Masha and Aryeh travel as refugees to Italy with a final goal of emigrating to Palestine, where Masha’s older sister Elka already resided.
Shifra born in refugee camp outside Milan, Italy
In a refugee camp outside of Milan, Shifra was born.