A woman who was among the few thousand Lithuanian Jews to have survived the World War II Nazi Holocaust was reunited for the first time after more than 60 years with a member of the Roman Catholic family who helped keep her alive.

Lea Ingel and Giedrute Ramanauskiene embraced and held each other during their emotional reunion at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday. They cried, acknowledging it might be the last time they would see each other, given their faltering health.

Ingel, now 84, said earlier that she had no idea what she would say to the 77-year-old Ramanauskiene, whom she has not seen since she was sheltered at the farm owned by Ramanauskiene’s family for a year.

“I’m not so good with the talking, with the language, because I haven’t been there for so long,” she said, referring to Lithuania, which she left in 1945. She has not returned since.

Ingel traveled from Tamarac, Florida, to New York for the reunion, and Ramanauskiene came from the small town of Simnas, Lithuania. She still lives on the same farm where her family once sheltered Ingel.

Ramanauskiene’s brother, Gintautas Ivanauskai, 73, was also supposed to make the trip, but was unable to travel with his sister due to visa trouble, although he may come later.

The reunion was made possible by the New York-based Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which gives financial support to mostly Christians from Eastern Europe who helped rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Since 1995, the group has reunited 12 survivors with their rescuers.

(IHT)