Lisa Lipschitz (1912 – 1992)
Born in 1912 Virbalis, northwest Lithuania, to Pesia (née Schmidt) and Calev Scraudisky, the third of seven children. She married Jacob Lipschitz, and their daughter, Pepa, was born in 1935. In 1941, Lisa was incarcerated in the Kovno ghetto together with her husband, daughter and sisters. There, she worked in a clinic for lightly injured SS men, doing cleaning, cooking and sewing assignments. She shared the food leftovers that she received from the patients with her family and needy Jews in the ghetto. In April 1944, after the Children's Aktion, Lisa and Jacob smuggled their daughter out of the ghetto with the help of Juozas Zabielavičius, Lisa's childhood friend. Juozas hid Pepa on his farm in Virbalis, and was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 2002. After the liquidation of the ghetto, in the course of which Jacob was transported, Lisa fled towards the river and reached a forest, where she hid for three months. At the war's end, Lisa and Pepa returned to the site of the ghetto and retrieved Lipschitz’s paintings, which had been hidden in the cemetery. Lisa married Yaakov Rosenkranz, and the family immigrated to Israel in 1957, settling in Haifa.
Jacob Lipschitz (1903 – 1945)
Born in Kovno. After graduating from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Jacob Lipschitz worked there teaching printmaking techniques. In addition, he illustrated textbooks and participated in exhibitions. In June 1941, he was interned in the Kovno ghetto with his wife, Lisa, and daughter, Pepa. He was assigned to a forced labor brigade, worked in the ghetto workshops, and painted secretly at night in the attic. He later joined the artist Esther Lurie and a group of other artists who documented ghetto life. Fearing Aktionen, the couple smuggled Pepa out of the ghetto, where she was taken in and hidden by the Christian Zabielavičius family. When the ghetto was liquidated in the summer of 1944, Lipschitz was transported to the Dachau camp and then conscripted for forced labor in the Kaufering camp. Due to his poor health and the inhuman conditions in the camp, Lipschitz died in March 1945. After the war, Lisa and Pepa returned to the ghetto and retrieved Lipschitz’s paintings, which had been hidden in the cemetery.
