Jacob Gens

Jacob Gens was the head of the Vilnius Ghetto government during World War II. He was shot by the Gestapo on 14 September 1943, shortly before the ghetto was liquidated. His policies, including the attempt to save some Jews by surrendering others for deportation or execution, continue to be a subject of debate.

About Jacob Gens in brief

Jacob Gens was the head of the Vilnius Ghetto government during World War II. Originally from a merchant family, he joined the Lithuanian Army shortly after the independence of Lithuania, rising to the rank of captain. He married a non-Jew and worked at several jobs, including as a teacher, accountant, and an administrator. His policies, including the attempt to save some Jews by surrendering others for deportation or execution, continue to be a subject of debate and controversy. He was shot by the Gestapo on 14 September 1943, shortly before the ghetto was liquidated and most of the residents sent either to labor camps or to execution at an extermination camp. His Lithuanian wife and daughter escaped and survived the war. Gens remained in hiding and was not deported to Siberia, when thousands of the. Lithuanian elites were exiled to Siberia. In early September 1941, the most murdered of the Germans of the Judenraten, which left the Jewish communityless, left the community before the relocation of Jews into the ghetto. After their arrival, Gens put in charge of the Jewish hospital, which ordered the creation of a Jewish Council of Juden, with community-selected members, with Gens as its leader. He died in a nursing home in Kaunas, where he had lived with his brother, Solomon, since the 1930s. He is survived by his wife, Elvyra Budreikaitė, and their daughter, Ada, who was born in 1926 and grew up in the town of Ukmergė.

He also leaves behind a son and daughter-in-law, both of whom are still living in the city of Kaun as well as a son-in law. He had a son, Yevgeny, who went on to become a well-known Lithuanian politician and a former member of the European Parliament. He wrote a book about his experiences, “Gens: A Man of Principles and a Man of Courage” (1998). Gens is buried in a plot of land he bought with his wife in the village of Kaunas. He has also written a book on the life of his father, the former Lithuanian president, and his father’s former wife, who died in the Holocaust. His son, Yevgeni, is also a well known Lithuanian author and author of several books on Lithuanian history, including “The Story of the Lithuanians” (2000). He is also the author of a book of the same name, “The Life of a Lithuanian Soldier” (2001). He also has a daughter, Ada, who survived the Holocaust and is now living in New York City. He lived in the U.S. with his daughter and her husband, who is now a prominent Lithuanian-American philanthropist. He worked as an accountant at the Ministry of Justice. He graduated in 1935 with a degree in law and economics. He later worked for the Shell Oil Corporation for two years from 1935, then took a job with Lietūkis.

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