Student Ester Klabinaitė (Grobman)

Student Ester Klabinaitė (Grobman, b.1920) was born in Kaunas and at present lives in Israel where she emigrated with her family in 1991. In 1938, Ester finished a private Jewish gymnasium in Kaunas, with Lithuanian as the language of tuition (established in 1933, it was the first gymnasium of this type). Initially she intended to study medicine, then applied for biology studies, and on 30 October 1940 was accepted to study chemistry at Vilnius University. On 19 September 1941, she was expelled from the university due to her ethnicity, along with other Jewish students. This decision was made as per the order of the Higher Education Department of the Board of Education, which was subordinate to the Nazis. Ester Kalbinaitė survived the Holocaust in the Kaunas ghetto and later in Stutthof concentration camp, and returned to Lithuania.

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