Abraomas Cernes

Abraomas Cernes (1923–?) was born in Kaunas into the family of Aronas Leiba and Amalija (Trockytė) Cernes. In 1940, he graduated from the private 1st Jewish Gymnasium in Kaunas. That same year, he applied to study at the Medical Department of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Vilnius University, but his application was rejected. In September 1940, Cernes repeatedly applied to the Philology Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Vilnius University, yet faced another rejection. In October 1940, he submitted another application – this time to the Economics Department of the Faculty of Economics of Vilnius University. Along with his application, he included a statement explaining that his previous attempts to enrol had been unsuccessful due to his parents’ social status. Having argued that his parents were neither industrialists nor merchants but merely worked in their own small perfume factory, Cernes was finally admitted as a student. In 1940, a week after submitting his final application, Cernes applied to be transferred to the Philology Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Vilnius University and was admitted. On 19 September 1941, he was expelled from the university by the Order of 17 September 1941 of the Department of Higher Education under the Board of Education, which was subordinate to the National Socialists. According to the database “Lithuanians in Siberia”, in 1941 (prior to his expulsion from the university), Cernes and his mother were deported to the Altai Region, while his father was arrested that same year and sent to the Sverdlovsk Region, where he died. As stated in the database, Cernes remained subject to repression until 1957. No further information on the fate of Cernes is known.