Ona Simaite, brave librarian
October 30, 2014 at 1:27 pm 1 comment
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this librarian performed truly courageous library shenanigans during WWII:
ONA SIMAITE (1899-1970), Lithuania
Ona Simaite, a librarian at Vilna University, used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the Vilna ghetto. Entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students, she smuggled in food and other provisions and smuggled out literary and historical documents. In 1944, the Nazis arrested and tortured Simaite. She was then deported to Dachau and later transferred to a concentration camp in southern France. She remained in France following her liberation.
Photo credit: Yad Vashem photo archives.
Thanks, Dina Wood and the USHMM Facebook page!
Entry filed under: academic libraries, perpetrated by staff.
Library Shenanigans 
1.
Kathleen | October 31, 2014 at 12:38 pm
Wow! Thank you.