According to Hana Shaf-Brener, Tobias Bernstein, son of Itzik and Rachel, aged 60, ran a shoe factory. He was married to Jenny, nee Lekus, 55. The couple had two sons, Eliyahu, 18, who studied music, and Emanuel, 16. A daughter, Miriam, was a student at the University of Vilna. During the war, Miriam became a partisan and was killed in battle in 1943.

In 1939, Jenny Bernstein’s sister Henya (surname unmentioned) moved from Memel (present-day Klaipeda, Lithuania) to Shkud with her husband (unnamed) and their six-year-old son, Yohanon.

According to Jewish Gen’s Lithuania Tax and Voters lists, the first Bernstein to be recorded in Shkud was Zalman, son of Ovsey, in 1849. Itsik Bernshteyn, son of Tevel (and presumably the father of Tobias in the chart above) was a well-to-do shopkeeper in 1904, and worked as a currier (leatherworker), in a beerhouse, and in footwear in 1914. According to the Lithuania Deaths database, Itsik died in 1928, aged 78.

According to Kehilat Shkud, Bernstein (presumably Tobias) owned a shoe factory: “Shoe producers were Yitzhak Cohen, Michael Mines, Hirsch Gilder, Shlomo Peres, Yehuda Berman and Bernstein – in the New Town. All together, the factories and craftsmen in the trade produced around 400 pairs of shoes a day” (13; see also 52).

Descendants of the Shkud Bernsteins reveal that Jenny Lekus-Bernstein was a concert pianist: “As a German Jew from Memel, she was able to study as well as perform in her youth, but marriage and the move to Shkud had put a stop to that.  As a mother Jenny put the love of music in all of her children”  (personal correspondence). In his memoir “My Little Town Shkud,” Leon Bernstein, Jenny’s son, recalled, “People learned to play piano from the two music teachers in the shtetl, my mother and the Russian pianist Pakrovsky.” He also recalls that Jenny had contemplated emigrating to Israel before the Holocaust, musing, “Let’s sell the house, we’ll have enough for the trip.” Sadly, the plan never materialized.

Tobias and Jenny had two  surviving children: Yehuda and Leon. According to Jewish Gen’s Lithuania Marriages database, Yudel Bernstein, son of Tevel and Zene (nee Leikus), born in 1911, married Julia Segalovski in Kaunas in 1939. Another son, Leon Bernstein, survived and submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem for his family members (see below). He is also the author of the memoir “Mayn Shtetele Shkud” (English: “My Little Town Shkud”);  read the English translation here.

According to the Bernstein family, Yehuda was born in 1913 and Leon in 1914. Yehuda escaped to Palestine, avoiding the Holocaust. Leon, who had a doctorate in mathematics and was teaching at the University of Vilnius, was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, but escaped and joined a partisan unit, which eventually joined the Soviet Army’s advance on Vilnius and liberated it in 1944. After spending four years in Italy, Leon moved to Israel and eventually to the US. Of Tobias and Jenny’s three murdered children, Emanuel was killed at Fort 9 in Kaunas, and Eliyahu was killed with his parents in Shkud. Miriam, like her older brother Leon, escaped the Vilnius ghetto to become a partisan. She died with her Betar group when they were ambushed by collaborators (personal communication). Shaf-Brener also describes the fate of Miriam Bernstein: “Miriam Maya Bernstein fell in battle in the forests of Lithuania with the partisans on the bridge, when she returned from activities with her group in 1943. The entire group fell in battle” (18).

Yad Vashem provides the following information about the Bernstein family of Shkud:

Tobias Bernstein was born in Memel, Lithuania in 1888 to Itzik and Rakhel. He was married Jenny. Prior to WWII he lived in Memel, Lithuania. During the war he was in Schoden, Lithuania.

Tobias was murdered in the Shoah. 

This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his son [Leon Bernstein] http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1903628&language=en

Jenny Bernstein nee Lakos was born in Memel, Lithuania in 1890. She was married Tobias. Prior to WWII she lived in Memel, Lithuania. During the war she was in Skuodas, Lithuania.

Jenny was murdered in the Shoah. 

This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her daughter. [Leon Bernstein] .http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1891108&language=en

Elijas Bernstein was born in Memel, Lithuania in 1922 to Tobias and Ieni nee Lakos. Prior to WWII he lived in Memel, Lithuania. During the war he was in Skuodas, Lithuania.

Elijas was murdered in the Shoah. 

This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his brother. http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1890841&language=en

Emanuel Bernstein was born in Memel, Lithuania in 1924 to Tobias and Ieni nee Lakos. He was a child. Prior to WWII he lived in Memel, Lithuania. During the war he was in Skuodas, Lithuania.

Emanuel was murdered in the Shoah. 

This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his brother. http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1385742&language=en

Miriam Bernstein was born in Memel, Lithuania in 1920 to Tobias and Ieni nee Lakos. Prior to WWII she lived in Memel, Lithuania. During the war she was in Skuodas, Lithuania.

Miriam was murdered in the Shoah. 

This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her sister. [Note: Submitter is Leon Bernstein.] http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1385698&language=en

[1] Name added by Aviva Tirosh

[2] Name added by Aviva Tirosh

[3] “Lekus” added by Aviva Tirosh

[4] “Pianist” added by the Bernstein family. Jenny Bernstein was a concert pianist in Memel before she moved to Shkud; she transferred her love of music to her children.