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The Fridman Sisters

Who Escaped from Skaudvile

These two sisters from Skaudvile were Liuba and Freda Friedman and this is the story of their miraculous escape from the Nazi and Lithuanian's. While researching the shtetl of Skaudvile at the United States Holocaust Museum archives in Washington, DC, I discovered one tiny article concerning Skaudvile. Freda Karpul wrote this article. I later found out it was limited to four double spaced pages and it along with a video and audio taping of a holocaust survivor, Mrs. Freda Karpul, was part of Steven Spielberg's Holocaust project. This is the story that Freda Friedman Karpul told me in 1996 when I visited with her in her apartment in West Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Freda Friedman lived with her father and mother and her two sisters in Skaudvile in 1941. On June 21st, Freda attended a dance that Saturday evening. She had fun, frolicking, dancing and enjoying the festivities. On the way home, she was accompanied by Leib (Leon) Brett, who was a few years older than she. Freda was skipping and running getting her shoes and stockings very wet. Leon took the stockings and put them in his back pocket and laughing, he said: "I will give these back to you tomorrow, Freda". The next day was Sunday, June 22, 1941 and about noon, the Germany army entered and occupied Skaudvile as the start of the German offensive against Russia in World War Two.

In mid July of the same year all of the Jews of Skaudvile were brought to the center of the village for a very important announcement. The Jewish men and women were separated. Although the separation was made very difficult because of the great fears of the Jews. The separation was finally made by both force and by assuring everyone there that the men were to form a work detail and would be properly cared for with good housing and Kosher food. These assurances calmed some of the fears of the villagers. The men were marched off towards the Puzai Forest and the elderly, the women and the children were told to return home and not to worry about their sons, husbands, fathers and grandfathers they would be well taken care of. Then while still in sight of their love ones, they were made to dig long ditches between the bushes and trees. Shortly, the women and children could hear noises of gunshots and the moans of their men, the women all feared for the worse. These men were never seen again. The few that were able to escape were later caught and shot.

Then a short time later the rest of the Jews who remained alive were rounded up. The people were told to give up all of their possessions to the Lithuanians and Nazis or be shot. Most did give up everything they owned of any value. The Jews were taken by wagon a few kilometers to the railroad station at Batok where they were imprisoned for about a month until mid-August.

The women, children, and the elderly were held until September 16, 1941. When they were marched to the Gryblaukis forest where the Lithuanians were ready to shoot them. Freda's mother yelled in Yiddish "run, run, my children, run". The family had previously planned to all run in different direction when their mother told them to. Freda ran and ran, but did look back to see her mother and Zebra being shot and falling to the ground.

Freda Friedman continued to run through the rest of the day and late into night. The nights were cold and damp in Lithuania in September. She finally found a Lithuanian farmhouse that she knew. Her father and this farmer did business together before the war. They gave her warm food and dry clothing and hid her. A few days later, her sister, Liuba, turned up there too. The farmer and his wife were very frighten that these Jews would be found in their home and they and their family would be shot with Freda and Liuba, so the sisters had to leave.

They slept during the nights in the cold forest, receiving some food and once in a while, they were allowed to sleep in a farmer's barn. Both, Freda and Liuba, were sick, cold, and felt that it was hopeless to continue. They talked and talked about what had happened, that their mother and father had been killed along with their younger sister, their village was gone, all the people they had known and relatives were gone, they knew they would be shot if found by either the Germans or Lithuanian forces. They felt hopeless and very helpless, so their talk turned to suicide. For days they thought that this was the only way to escape from the suffering. Freda was given pork to eat most of the time from the Lithuanians who did help them but because of her up bringing, it caused her to vomit and become sick. The two girls finally decided to go out on to the Neiman River and they planned to lay on the ice until they froze to death. Liuba went to quickly to sleep while Freda waited to freeze. As the sun started to rise she saw Liuba's lips and face turning blue, but Freda could not sleep. After a while Freda became frightened because she thought she would not die and be all alone, which frightened her much more than death with her sister. As Freda's fear grew she start trying to wake her sister up so they could be together. she shook Liuba and the more she did, this activity provided Freda with additional warmth. She was finally able to get her sister fully awake. Freda and Liuba sat there on the river ice until they spotted a small light on a hill in the distance. Both started walking toward the light, which was a few miles away. When they arrived, it turned out to a very small farmhouse with very large dog, about the size of a calf. At first the dog was very vicious and barked and growled loudly, which almost caused the sisters to run. All of sudden the dog stopped growling and pushed the front gate open and backed into the house pushing the front door open.

The Lithuanian family, the father and mother with their daughters, were eating breakfast. When the farmer saw what had happened he made the sign of the cross, because this was a miracle. He told Freda and Liuba that the dog had never did anything like this and would attack anyone he did not know. The Friedman girls were giving food and warm clothing and they slept in the house with the farmer's children for a few days. Then they had to move on, because again the farmer and his wife became worried about their own safety and their children's welfare.

This now was in the late winter of 1942, and Freda became very sick. She stopped eating and had a fever. It was very hard for her to sleep. Another Lithuanian friend told them they had to go to the Kovno Ghetto so Freda could receive medical treatment or she would die in a few days. So the two sisters were smuggled into the Kovno Ghetto, which in its self seems strange because while they were sneaking in, many were attempting to escape the ghetto. Freda was treated by Jewish doctors there and got well over a period of several months. She had, had typhus. Months later, the sisters escaped from the Kovno Ghetto and again hid in the forest until the Russian Army arrived and liberated them. It was now 1944 and the war in Europe was almost over.

After the war Freda married Abram Karpul and had a daughter. They lived in Kovno, Lithuanian until 1980. She and her husband, Abram, moved to Chicago, Illinois with their daughter, Sophie, and their son-in-law and granddaughter. Her sister, Liuba, is married and now lives in Khar-Saba, Israel. Both are well and alive in 1996. They are two of only five survivors from the Shtetl of Skaudvile who are still alive today.

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