Arie Shilansky

Arie Shilansky was born in 1928 in the town of Siauliai, Lithuania, to a Zionist family, the youngest of four children. His father, Yosef Zvi Shilansky, died when he was born. In June 1941, the Germans invaded and occupied Lithuania. A few weeks later, a ghetto was established in Siauliai, and Arie and his family were imprisoned there. “In the ghetto, we lived a life of hunger and humiliation,” Arie later recalled. “I remember the horror of the public hanging of Bezalel Mazowiecki, who tried to smuggle food and cigarettes.”

Arie and Ruth have three children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.