Domicele Pagojute   Domicele sittingDomicele sitting Additional
pictures  Domicele Pagojute had been the nanny of the Shohat
family's children: Haim, born 1932 and Joshua, born 1933. Their
mother, Reizl Shohat, was a widow and ran a little inn in the
town of Telsiai (Telse or Telz), in the Siauliai District,
Lithuania. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Domicele had
already left the family's service and worked for an
ophthalmologist whose office was in the same building as the
Shohat's place. Domicele had a small room in the building, and
it was there that she hid her former employer and other Jews.
When the Germans occupied Telsiai on 25 June 1941, Reizl and her
sons fled from town. They were eventually rounded up with other
Jews and put in a camp. They managed to escape two massacres,
tried hiding with a Lituanian family, but in September 1941 they
were caught again and brought back to Telsiai, where they were
put in the ghetto. Domicele kept in touch with the Shoahts and
tried to help them. She would