Paulina Aleknienė, also known as Paulė Aleknienė, lived with her husband Povilas at the isolated Paliepiai homestead in the Kupiškis region. Her life story is inseparable from the family’s farming, charitable work and care for children. Her special place in Lithuanian history, however, comes from her courageous decision during the Second World War to shelter the Jewish girl Ruta Jofaitė, who was hiding from Nazi persecution.

Before settling in Paliepiai, the Aleknas lived in the United States for a time. On returning to Lithuania, they bought a farm and made it a model farm through their own work. They had no biological children, but raised several children in their care. They looked after their upbringing and education, helped people in difficult circumstances and treated their hired farm workers well. This says much about the family’s values: caring for others was part of their daily life, rather than an isolated act.

When Nazi Germany occupied Lithuania in 1941, the systematic persecution and murder of Jews began. Among the thousands imprisoned in the Šiauliai ghetto was Ruta Jofaitė, born in 1937. Her mother Riva, a physician, had been evacuated east at the start of the war, while her father Aaronas was mobilized into the Red Army. Ruta and her older brother Mošė remained with their aunt Eta Koladnienė and grandmother Batia Trusfusienė.

Life in the ghetto was filled with hunger, fear and constant danger. Ruta recalled how her aunt Eta secretly brought in food strapped to her body. In November 1943, as an operation to murder children approached, Juozas Petrulis of Šiauliai organized the family’s rescue. He helped Ruta, her brother, aunt and grandmother escape from the ghetto, then sought safe places for them with trusted people.

For a time, Ruta sheltered in Petrulis’s home, but when danger arose, he found her refuge with Povilas and Paulina Alekna. Thus young Ruta came to the isolated Paliepiai homestead, far from her family and her native Šiauliai.

She lived with the Aleknas for about eight months. Paulina and Povilas welcomed her as their own child. The girl did not have to remain constantly hidden in an enclosed room: she could stay with her guardians, watch their daily work and experience ordinary family life. Nevertheless, her safety depended on every small detail. When strangers came to the farm, Ruta was told not to speak lest her speech reveal her identity.

People also visited the Aleknas’ homestead for ordinary farm matters, such as churning butter. Visits that would have caused no concern in peacetime now posed a danger. Paulina and Povilas had to protect the girl constantly while avoiding their neighbours’ suspicions.

These months were particularly important to Ruta. She knew that other members of her family were hiding nearby, but could not meet them. The Aleknas’ home became her temporary home, and Paulina and Povilas became the people entrusted with a child’s life. They protected Ruta from immediate danger and also gave her care and human companionship.

Later, Ruta was hidden with Eduardas and Teresė Levinskas in Žagarė. After the Nazi occupation ended, the surviving family members left for Kazan, where her mother lived. Her father had been killed at the front, and her older brother Mošė died in a traffic accident after the war, aged sixteen.

In 1967, Ruta returned to Lithuania for the first time since the war. She visited the people whose help had enabled her to survive. Povilas Alekna had already died, but Paulina was still alive. More than two decades separated the wartime girl from the adult woman returning to the places where she had been rescued.

Paulina Aleknienė’s life bears witness to a quiet but profoundly important resistance to inhumanity. When children’s lives were being destroyed solely because of their origins, Paulina sheltered a girl who needed safety, warmth and a family. Her decision was one of the reasons Ruta Jofaitė survived the Holocaust.