http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Interview with Ada Ustjanauskas November 17, 2008 RG-50.030*0527 This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection PREFACE The following oral history testimony is the result of a taped interview with Ada Ustjanauskas, conducted by Ina Navazelskis on November 17, 2008 on behalf of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The interview is part of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's collection of oral testimonies. Rights to the interview are held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The reader should bear in mind that this is a verbatim transcript of spoken, rather than written prose. This transcript has been neither checked for spelling nor verified for accuracy, and therefore, it is possible that there are errors. As a result, nothing should be quoted or used from this transcript without first checking it against the taped interview. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection ADA USTJANAUSKAS November 17, 2008 Beginning Tape One Question: Well, this morning we are conducting an interview with Ada Gens Ustjanauskas and following her life story. Thank you very, very much, Mrs. Ustjanauskas for coming and talking to us. This is going to be a very broad story with many different components, and many different people who are in it. It will be a -- a glimpse into at least what happened with one person in a very tough part of the world, in Lithuania. And I would like to start, as we often do, at the very beginning. I’d like to find out about your background, where you were born, the family you were born into, the details about your early life. So let us start with that. Where were you born? Answer: Smalininkai. Smalininkai. Q: And is that a village or a town? A: I would call it a little town. Q: And where is it close to? A: It’s close -- it’s on the German border. My birth certificate is in German and in Lithuanian. It was like a style in those days, you had a baby born in Germany, and my mother was on the way to Germany. Right on the border, I was born. She didn’t make it to the German border, but as I say, my birth certificate is both in German and in Lithuanian. So we have no idea about Smalininkai, we didn’t live there. She just happened to be traveling through. Q: And your birth date is? A: October 9, 1926. Q: And where was your mother coming from? A: At that time my father was teaching in the high school, Jewish high school in Jurbarkas. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection USHMM Archives RG-50.030*0527 2 Q: Uh-huh. A: That’s where she came from, from Jurbarkas to have me in Germany. Q: Can you tell me a little bit about -- first of all, Smalininkai was still a Lithuanian territory village or town, is that correct? A: Border town. Q: It was a border town -- A: Border town. Q: -- but it did not belong to Germany? A: No. Q: Okay. And was it -- can you tell me a little bit about the -- the border was to what part of Germany? A: Prussy? Q: Prussia. A: Prussia. Q: Prussia, okay. Then let’s go back to Jurbarkas. What did -- what kind of a place was that? A: I don’t know. It’s a town. I was rem -- I remember being there with high school for literary competition, I believe. It was a small town in Lithuania, not a big town. Q: Was it close to Kaunas? A: No. Q: Was it close to [indecipherable] city? No? A: No, no, no. We -- I remember we took a river boat to go to Jurbarkas. Q: So you don’t have any memories of -- A: No, none whatsoever. This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection USHMM Archives RG-50.030*0527 3 Q: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your earliest memories. A: Kaunas. Q: Mm-hm. A: Father was attending -- at the same time he was teaching, he was attending university, and the only way of communication at that time was taking a riverboat. It was too strenuous, too long. So he decided to move to Kaunas to attend his studies. So, what I remember first, I remember my kindergarten. And in those days, what was known in -- not known in United States, but it was very well known in Lithuania, Montessori system kindergarten. Q: Oh, you were in the Montessori system? A: Montessori system, and the person who had -- who was the leading person was Professor [indecipherable]. Q: Mm-hm. A: She started that. From the Montessori, I went to German kindergarten. And when my mother brought me to school to enter me into the first grade and they checked my abilities, they told my mother that, you know, your child doesn’t belong in first grade. In first grade we use matches to count. Your daughter can write and read and count. We should put her into second grade, but she is too young, she is only four and a half years old. So -- Q: So what did they do? A: -- to make a long story short, I finish high school at 14 and a half. I jumped three years in the meantime. I never discuss it because it’s not very believable and there were only two cases in Lithuania. One was Kutraga, Dr. Kutraga’s son, he was 15 and a half, I was 14 and a half. But when we came to United States, it just happened that the principal of my high school and my This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection USHMM Archives RG-50.030*0527 4 first teacher lived in Hartford. I never talked about myself, but they told everybody. So they s -- this is no mystery any more, you know, no secret any more. So -- Q: But you went from Montessori school to a German kindergarten? A: Yes. Q: We’ll come to your schooling in a little while -- A: Now -- Q: -- I’d like to come back to that. But your first memories are of this Montessori school. A: Yeah, that’s right. Q: Do you have any picture in your mind of -- A: Oh yes, I remember. I remember, for example, during the bell, we were too small, there was a little wooden block, we could stop the -- step on the block, ring the bell by ourselves. We were to be -- to take our clothes -- coats by ourselves, hang it on a peg, the pegs were lower. Everything we had to do ourselves, and I don’t remember too much about the activities, I just remember that I hated to drink cocoa because it had a skin of milk on the top. That I remember very well. So, we’re coming now to the school. Q: Mm-hm. A: Elementary school. Q: Yes. A: They told my mother that they are a little bit worried that at my age I’ll start, but the-they told her, don’t worry, if we see that she is falling behind, we’ll just very naturally, gradually put her back, one year backwards. Well, it never came to that. So I finished second grade, I finished third grade, and then I took exams to high school. Q: And this was you were still in the German school? This is a verbatim transcript of spoken word. It is not the primary source, and it has not been checked for spelling or accuracy. http://collections.ushmm.org Contact [email protected] for further information about this collection USHMM Archives RG-50.030*0527 5 A: No, that was already Marija Pečkauskaitė gymnasium. Q: So that was a Lithuanian school. A: It was a Lithuanian school. It was private. Q: Mm-hm. A: Expensive, and I went through it. Now, after I took the exams to first class, I continued at that school. In Lithuanian language it was called pono gymnasium. Q: Pono? A: Pono. Q: Mm-hm. And how would you translate that? A: Well, we had the children of -- our cabinet minister’s children, heads of department children, children of very rich people. Q: So, the elite? A: Elite, yeah. Q: The elite. A: Elite, yeah. Q: So it wasn’t the of-official name of the school -- A: No, it was not official -- Q: -- it was the unofficial name of the school. A: -- it was unofficial name of the school. In those days the government high schools, were charging 100 litas per year.