ANTANAS POŠKA
1903 03 10 - 1992 10 16
Recognized 2001
Buried in Antakalnis cemetery,
Vilnius, Lithuania
Graveyard coordinates:
54, 69 92 17 (š. pl.)
25,32 18 89 (r. ilg.)
Antanas Poškas 'tombstone was restored by a resolution of the bikers' congress on 07.10.2018
Antanas Poška (née Paškevičius), in his late thirties, lived in Wilno and directed one of the public libraries there located on Chopin Street. An intellectual and well-known Esperantist, Antanas Poška defined the sphere of his scientific interests as “Cultural Anthropology” or “Man’s adaptation to the perpetually-changing environment”. In June 1940, when the Soviets took over Lithuania, Poška was ordered to destroy the books that did not fit Communist ideology. A year later, with the German occupation, the authorities ordered the library to get rid of Jewish books in Yiddish and Hebrew. Poška did not obey either order and concealed over 1,500 items of printed material. During that period, Antanas also helped some of his Jewish acquaintances. For some time, he hid the Mucher and the Todes families in the library cellar. Antanas’s friend Akiva Gerszater, also an Esperanto specialist, was given a fictitious document with a Polish name stating that he was a library employee. That document enabled Akiva Gerszater to move around freely and protected him, for some time, against forced labor. When Akiva’s family was murdered with other Jews from the ghetto, he escaped and after several days went to Antanas for help. The latter hid his Jewish friend in his apartment, thus endangering his wife and little son. He protected Akiva for nearly ten months, until the return of the Red Army in mid-July 1944. Shortly after the war, Akiva moved to Poland and from there to Israel. After the war Antanas was deported by the Soviets to Vorkuta and to Kazakhstan, and returned to his county only in 1958. Contact between rescuer and rescued continued, and until his death in 1964, Akiva exchanged letters with his wartime rescuer. The two Esperanto specialists wrote to each other in the language they both loved and cherished.
ANTANAS POŠKA WITH GEDIMINAS ILGŪNAS IN 1972 IN CAUCASUS
ANTANAS POŠKA IN SALOČIAI BEFORE LEAVING TO KAUNAS FOR STUDYING (AROUND1921). PHOTO FROM J. Nekrašius ARCHIVE
ANTANAS POŠKA NEXT TO TAJ MAHAL 1931-1932
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FROM THE LEFT: JONAS PAŠKEVIČIUS (FATHER), ANTANAS POŠKA, AGOTA PAŠKEVIČIŪTĖ, STEPONAS PAŠKEVIČIUS (UNCLE) AROUND 1934 PHOTO FROM J. Nekrašius ARCHIVE
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RESCUED PERSONS:
Akiva Geršateris
Icikas Mucheris su šeima
J. Todes su šeima
INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM:
