Relationship | Family/ Pre-Marriage Name | First Name | Father’s Name | Mother’s Name | Occupation or Nickname | Place of birth/ Residence | Age or birth date | Place and date of death |
Husband | Shpits | Betsalel | Gravedigger, small merchant, limped | Shkud | 60 | Kretinga. Sent away with the women. | ||
Wife | Shpits | Chana | Housewife | Shkud | 57 | Alka Hill | ||
Son | Shpits | Zundel | Betsalel | Chana | Shkud | 1914 | Shkud | |
*** |
According to Hana Shaf-Brener, Betsalel Shpitz, 60, a merchant and gravedigger, who limped, was married to Chana, 57. The couple had a son, Zundel, born in 1914. “Leib Shpitz survived the war. His father, Betzalel Shpitz (‘Tsale der Hinkedicker’), whose leg had been amputated above the knee and who had a wooden leg, together with Dr. Yosef Fogelman, who limped and walked with a stick, were expelled on 17.07.1941 from Shkud to Kretinga together with the women and children on that terrible road of torment to Dimitravas. In Kretinga they were executed” (Shaf-Brener 20).
“Maccabi”, Shkud: Bottom row (right to left): Tuvia Einbinder, Leib Tzimbelov.
Second row: Eliezer Bob, Wolf Bass, Aba Levin, Reuven Gilder, Shlomo Malkin, David Bass, Leib Friedman (now in South Africa), Alexander Pinta (now in Israel).
Third row: Chaim Shalom Abramovitsch (now in France), Shlomo London, David Davidov, Yosef Fisher, Leib Elishuv (now in France), Eliezer Baskind (now in South Africa).
Fourth row: Yosef Kirzhner, Mendel Segal, Gedaliyahu Einbinder (now in Lithuania), Chaim Natanson (now in Israel), Benjamin Chin (now in South Africa), Benjamin Shtiris, Shmuel Axelrod, Abraham Bunis, Michel Fogelman, Yitzhak Aibel, Pesach Bob (now in South Africa).
Fifth row: Leib Shpetz, Abraham Friedman (now in South Africa), Meir Teitz (now in Israel), Israel Tenor, Leib Perlgeber, Shlomo Yudelman (Photo Kehilat Shkud 25)
According to Jewish Gen’s Lithuania Tax and Voters Lists database, the Shpitz family was established in Shkud by 1884. Berel Shpits, son of Mikhel, was a leatherworker in 1914. Girsh Leyba Shpits, son of Berel, living in Courliandskaya Street, was 12 years old in 1912. Berel Shpits and his family emigrated before the war. According to Kehilat Shkud, “The shtetl’s tanners, Shpitz (now in South Africa), Hochman, Turek and Kopelovitsch in the New Town and Grinblatt in the Old Town, purveyed most of the needed raw materials to Shkud’s shoe factories” (13; see also 52). According to the Lithuania Internal Passports database, Khaya (nee Shpits) Rabinovich, daughter of Ber, born in 1904, applied for an internal passport in 1932. Kehilat Shkud tells us that Haya Shpitz-Rabinovitz emigrated to Israel; she had been a teacher in the “Yavne” folk-school and the Hebrew pro-gymnasium (29, 56).
“Jews in the Memory of Skuodas People” (see link on this page) lists Ber Shpitz under “Shoe Trading” in its business directory (18).
According to the Lithuania Marriages database, Benyamin Fishel Spitz, son of Tsalel and Khine, a cobbler, age 24, married Eta Sher in Skuodas in 1936. Faivel Hirsh Shpits, son of Kalman Jankel and Chaie Dvaure, born in Skuodas in June 1909, married Taube Sher in Plunge in 1936.
Jewish Gen’s Yizkor Book Necrology database lists Bezalel Shpitz of Shkud.
Yad Vashem has this to say about the Shpits family of Shkud:
Betzalel Shpitz was born in Lithuania to Itzik and Etl. He was married to Khine. Prior to WWII he lived in Lithuania. During the war he was in Lithuania. Betzalel was murdered/perished in Lithuania at the age of 71. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his relative, a Shoah survivor. http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=3588719&language=en
Khine Shpitz was born in Lithuania to Ore and Khave. She was married to Betzalel. Prior to WWII she lived in Lithuania. During the war she was in Lithuania. Khine was murdered/perished in Lithuania at the age of 65. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by her relative, a Shoah survivor. http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=3611125&language=en