Lithuanian Jewish poet. She wrote in Lithuanian. In 1935 she graduated from Kupiškis Secondary School, in 1939 - from Rokiškis Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas State Gymnasium. In 1939, she studied French language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University (from 1940 at Vilnius University) (after her death on 19 September 1941, she was removed from the student list because of her nationality; in 2019, she was awarded the Diploma of Memory of Vilnius University). In mid-July 1941, she was shot with the Olkinai and Jofiai families in the forest of Kavoliškis near the Sahara swamp.
Matilda Olkinaitė (photo from the graduation certificate of Rokiškis Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas State Gymnasium)Archive of the Document Management Subdivision of the Vilnius University Law Department
From 1931 she published her poems in the publications Žvaigždutė, Kregždutė, and Aušreleė; S.Tijūnaitis, the editor of the publications, encouraged the poet to write. The first juvenilia poems are characterised by Lithuanian patriotism, childish emotions, love for the homeland. Later works (published in the publication Mokslo dienos) showed traits of neo-romantic lyricism; the poet was mentored by J. Tarvydas at the Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas State Grammar School in Rokiškis. At Vilnius University, M. Olkinaitė listened to lectures on literature by professors V. Mykolaitis-Putinas and V. Krėves, and published her poems in the daily newspaper Lietuvos žinios. She also wrote small prose works, translated poems by J. W. Goethe (the poem "The Beloved's Proximity" / "Nähe des Geliebten"), and poems by Jacob Gottlieb (from the Yiddish language). He kept a diary (surviving diary covers the period 15.08.1940-1941.02.28). His work and diary are published in the book Unlocked Diary (compiled by M. Kvietkauskas, 2019).
