Olkinas Elijas Leiba

Elijas Leib Olkinas was born on 16 September 1919 in Panevėžys into the family of the pharmacist Nojus and Asna Olkinas, and later moved with his family to Panemunėlis (Rokiškis District). In 1938, he finished the Kėdainiai Gymnasium with instruction in Lithuanian and wanted to become a medical doctor. That same year, he applied to study at the medical faculty of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, but his application was rejected. He was admitted into the Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. A year later, he appealed to the rector of the university asking for a transfer to the Pharmacology Department of the medical faculty, motivating his appeal by his desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, a pharmacist in Panemunėlis. At the end of 1939, when Vilnius was returned to Lithuania, Elijas and some other students of Vytautas Magnus University were transferred to Vilnius University. Because he was a Jew, Elijas Leib was expelled from the university on 19 September 1941, on the basis of the Order of 17 September 1941 of the Higher Education Department of the Board of Education, which was subordinate to the Nazis. He was imprisoned in the Kaunas Ghetto from which he escaped with some of his friends and reached the forest of Vabalninkas. However, fate was not kind to him. By mistake a member of another group hiding in the forest wounded him and he died from the injury.

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