Zalcbergaitė Chasia

Zalcbergaitė Chasia (1916-?) was born in Nemakščiai, Raseiniai county. She received primary and elementary education, but there were gaps in the process due to a difficult financial situation of her family. Finally, in 1934, she entered the private Jewish girls’ gymnasium Javnė in Kaunas and graduated in 1935. After graduating, she had to work to help her parents, so she did not apply for admission to Vilnius University until the autumn of 1940. Chasia wanted to study at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Mathematics and Nature but was not accepted. She then lodged a second application, explaining that she had not been admitted, most likely, because her birth certificate listed her father as a “merchant”, which was a mistake, as he had never been a merchant, and the family’s livelihood was very hard. Therefore, Chasia was eventually accepted for the studies she wanted. In December 1940, she submitted another application, stating that she could not study chemistry because “the service interfered with all the practical work” and that she wanted to transfer to the Department of Philology of the Faculty of Humanities. In February 1941, she was transferred to the English Language and Literature Group of the Department of Philology of the Faculty of Humanities. However, she did not study for long, as she was expelled from the university on 19 September 1941 based on the Order of 17 September 1941 of the Higher Education Department of the Board of Education, under the authority of the National Socialists. According to Yad Vashem, Zalcberg Chasia (without a place of origin) survived the Holocaust. Her further fate is unknown.

Documents