Fania Brantsovskaya

This is me in 2003, photographed in the Vilnius museum by the stand with the photographs of all dear ones who perished during the Holocaust. I live a fulfilled life, also since I'm involved in the Jewish life in Lithuania. I'm not religious, but I'm happy that there is a wonderful Jewish community and the Hesed taking care of old people in Lithuania. I volunteer for the section of former ghetto inmates. I also conduct public activities as a former inmate of the ghetto. I meet with children in the local Jewish school - there is a state Jewish state school in Vilnius - speak at meetings and on memorial days. I also visit Ponary where Jewish Lithuanians were killed. I always speak in Yiddish, which is my mother tongue, with other survivors of the Holocaust. I don't regret that my husband and I have lived our life in Lithuania. Though, in the course of time, we had more and more understanding of the hypocrisy of the Soviet power, we were its true servants. However, I'm happy that Lithuania has become independent. This promotes the development of the Lithuanian and Jewish nations. Every year on 9th May, Victory Day I make a speech at the town meeting. At the 45th anniversary of the victory I spoke in the Jewish Knesset where I was invited and so were other veterans of World War II, former ghetto inmates and partisans.