In the summer of 2014, Dita Šperlingienė (Zupavičienė) came to Lithuania with the hope of commemorating her former husband Juda (Jehuda) Zupavičius and his comrades on the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Kaunas Ghetto..
„I am back in our yard. It’s quiet. Many, many years have passed. I see myself as a young high school girl always in a hurry, full of strength and energy. And later, happily stepping into a new life with Juda. One sunny Sunday morning, it all disappeared like a beautiful dream…“ – Dita Šperlingienė (Zupavičienė)
A family photograph of Dita and Juda Zupavičius transformed into a shattered mirror shard, where beneath the drawing you will find a short text handwritten by Dita, introducing this story and the marks of an unforgettable tragedy.
„Here in 1939–1941 lived Dita and Juda Zupavičius. Juda was one of the leaders of the Kaunas Ghetto underground; despite brutal torture by the Nazis, he did not betray the hiding places of the ghetto children. Dita was his comrade-in-arms.”
Dita Kacaitė met Juda Zupavičius in Kaunas in 1938. They married in February 1941 and together moved into the house on Ožeškienė Street that belonged to the Grinberg family.
Jehuda Zupavičius was originally from Jonava; he moved to Kaunas in the 1930s and was a reserve officer in the Lithuanian army. While studying, he befriended Zvi Kadushin. When all the Jews of Kaunas were moved into the ghetto, with the active support of Deputy Chief of the Jewish Police Jehuda Zupavičius, Zvi Kadushin secretly began photographing daily life in the Kaunas Ghetto. These photographs gained invaluable significance and are exhibited in the most renowned Holocaust museums.
Among such unforgettable photographs by Zvi Kadushin is this one—a month before the fateful Children’s Action and Juda’s arrest, Zvi Kadushin photographed his friends Dita and Juda Zupavičius in the ghetto, in their little room.
In 2013, Dita Šperling (Zupavičienė)—Juda’s comrade-in-arms—was awarded the Life Saving Cross for rescuing Rinutė Zupavičiūtė.**
Kiemo Galerija 