Benediktas Mikulis

Benediktas Mikulis was a Lithuanian partisan who lived in hiding for 27 years – first from the Nazis during World War II and later from the Soviets during the Cold War.

The Mikulis family homestead is located in Prazariškės village in Žaislių seniūnija (elderate). Benediktas Mikulis resided under a stack of potatoes in a cellar crawlspace so small that it was often referred to as a coffin.

He lost the tips of several fingers to rats while in hiding. At night, Mikulis would slip out unnoticed, do chores around the family home to support his ailing mother, and kill Nazis and, later, Soviets, in an attempt to gain freedom for Lithuania. He stayed so well hidden that for decades he was thought to be dead.

In 1971, Mikulis came out of hiding.

Mikulis was found by the Soviet police in the 1980s and spent several years in jail. He believes that his neighbor turned him in, and even while in his late 80s, Mikulis declared that if he saw this neighbor, he would kill him with his bare hands.

Mikulis is featured in a Finnish documentary about Lithuanian freedom fighters.

References

* [http://www.kaisiadoriumuziejus.lt/index.php?id=130&mid=13&iid=101&who=menu Chronologija] — timeline (in Lithuanian)

ee also

*Forest Brothers
*History of Lithuania
*Nazi Germany
*Lithuanian SSR