Holocaust Survivors Motke “Max” Kuritzky When the Nazis invaded Anykščiai in June 1941, Motke Kuritzky was 23 years old.  He and a number of other Jews were given aid and comfort by a Lithuanian teenage neighbor, Verudka “Veronica” Kalinkiene. Because of her compassion and bravery, she made it possible for a number of Jews to escape and for Max to ultimately survive. After the war, Max married Herta Wohlmuth from Kaschau, Hungary. Herta was a prisoner at Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps and was liberated from Mühldorf.  Max and Herta emigrated to the United States in 1949 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. After becoming U.S. citizens, they anglicized their surname to Curtis. Herta died in Cleveland in 1975 and Max in 2010.  An account of Max’ escape from the Nazi terror and Verudka’s heroism may be found in either of the following books: • Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit, by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Health Communication, Florida, 2001, 357pp. (See section 6, The Holocaust: “Owing a Debt of Gratitude,” by Erica S. Goldman-Brodie, pp. 262-267.)   • How Dark the Heavens: 1400 Days in the Grip of Nazi Terror, by Sidney Iwens, Shengold Publishers, New York, 1990. In 1996, Max Curtis (nee Motke Kuritzky) traveled to Anykščiai to visit the shtetl of his birth and to reunite with the woman who saved his life 55 years before. In the image at far left, Max tearfully embraces Verudka “Veronica” Kalinkiene, while Lithuanian author and scholar Rimantas Vanagas looks on. (Photos courtesy of Dr. Michael Libenson.) In 2000, Verudka was honored by the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, established by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Heroes & Martyrs Remembrance Authority.  For risking her life to save persecuted Jews, she was awarded the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations. Her name is engraved on the Honor Wall in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Verudka died a few years later. Holocaust