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NEXT STORY

Growing up in the shadow of war

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Our fortunes are altered by Hitler's invasion of Lithuania
Tomas Venclova Poet
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Na, iš Kauno mes persikėlėm į Vilnių, nes ten buvo perkelta ir Švietimo ministerija. Ir čia prasidėjo Antrasis pasaulinis karas, tai yra, jis prasidėjo praktiškai anksčiau, bet Hitleris įsiveržė į Lietuvą, o taip sakant, pradėjo karą su Tarybų Sąjunga keturiasdešimt pirmųjų metų birželio mėnesį, birželio 22 dieną. Na, per kelias dienas Kaune ir Vilniuje nei tarybinės kariuomenės, nei kokių nors tarybinių veikėjų neliko. Visi pasitraukė, pabėgo, galima sakyti. Jų tarpe ir tėvas, nes naujoji, taip sakant valdžia, turbūt jam nebūtų atleidusi to ministeriavimo. Na, jis atsidūrė Maskvoje. Paskui per karą buvo fronte kurį laiką, ir vėliau, kartu su tarybine kariuomene, grįžo į Lietuvą, 1944-ais metais. O mes su mama likome Lietuvoje, nes per tokį karo pradžios chaosą, bombardavimus, netvarką tiesiog pasimetėm, taip sakant, tėvas mus buvo išvežęs į Vilniaus priemiestį, paskui jau į tą priemiestį nebegalėjo patekti, turėjo trauktis į Minską, paskui į Maskvą, ir mes su motina likome Lietuvoje, o jis atsidūrė anapus fronto linijos. Motina, kaip tarybinio ministro, ir, na, galima sakyti komunisto, nors kaip ir sakiau, jis partijos narys tada nebuvo, žmona buvo areštuota. Areštuota ir ją beveik rengėsi sušaudyti. Iš kalėjimo išėjo pražilusi, nors tada buvo tik dvidešimt, rodos, aštuonerių metų. Jauna graži moteris. Ją tardytojas lietuvis, ją be ko kito, bandė įrodyti, kad ji yra žydė, o tai būtų reiškę tikrą mirties sprendimą. Bet ji nebuvo žydė, ji buvo etninė lietuvaitė, katalikė, ir atrado liudininkų, kurie tą paliudijo. Tada ją po kiek laiko paleido iš kalėjimo, paliko policijos priežiūroje. Jinai ten turėjo registruotis kažkur policijoje. Paskui ir tas, rodos, buvo nutraukta, bet kurį laiką, taip sakant, ji buvo policijos priežiūroje ir mūsų gyvenimas nebuvo lengvas. Bet... gyvenome Kauno priemiestyje, Aukštojoje Fredoje, senelio šeimoje, pas senelį profesorių Račkauską ir jo žmoną. Jie turėjo namą, turėjo sodą, ten vietos užteko visiems. Ne tik man, bet dar buvo mano pusbrolis, rašytojo Petro Cvirkos sūnus Andrius. Truputį už mane jaunesnis, jeigu man karo pradžioj buvo treji metai su trupučiu, tai jam turbūt dar ir dvejų metų nebuvo.

Well, and from Kaunas we moved to Vilnius because the Ministry of Education was moved there. And that was where World War II began. That is to say it began, practically speaking, earlier, but Hitler invaded Lithuania, and, so to speak, began the war with the Soviet Union in the month of June, June 22nd 1941. Well, within several days there was no Soviet army in Kaunas and Vilnius, nor were any Soviet activists left there. All of them retreated, ran away, one might say. Amongst them was my father as well since the new, so to speak, government most probably would not have forgiven him for working as a minister. Well, he found himself in Moscow. Then during the war he served on the front for some time and later returned to Lithuania in 1944 with the Soviet army. Whereas my mother and I stayed on in Lithuania; because of the chaos at the start of the war – the bombing, the confusion – we got lost. My father had taken us to a suburb of Vilnius, later he wasn’t able to get to that suburb and had to pull back to Minsk, then to Moscow, and my mother and I were left in Lithuania, while he found himself on the other side of the front line. My mother, as the wife of a Soviet minister and, well, one might say a communist, even though, as I’ve already said, he wasn’t a party member then, was arrested. She was arrested and they were almost getting ready to shoot her. She left prison with grey hair even though she was only 20... I think, 28 years old. A young, beautiful woman. Her interrogator tried to show that she was Jewish and that would have meant a death sentence. But she wasn’t Jewish, she was an ethnic Lithuanian, a Catholic, and she found witnesses who attested to that. Then, after some time, they released her from prison under police supervision. She had to report to a police station. Then that demand, it seems, was lifted but for some time she was under police supervision and our life wasn’t easy. But… we lived in a suburb of Kaunas in Aukštoji Freda with my grandfather’s family, with my grandfather Professor Račkauskas and his wife. They had a house, they had a garden and there was enough room for everybody there. Not just for me, there was also my cousin Andrius, the son of the writer Petras Cvirka. He was a bit younger than me. If I was just over three years old at the start of the war, then most probably he wasn’t even two years old.

Born in 1937, Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian scholar, poet, author and translator of literature. He was educated at Vilnius University and later at Tartu University. As an active participant in the dissident movement he was deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1977 and had to emigrate. Between 1977 and 1980 he lectured at University of California, Berkeley, where he became friends with the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, who was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the school, as well as the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a full professor at Yale University.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: Ministry of Education, WWII, Soviet Union, Lithuania, 22-06-1941, 1944, Vilnius, Moscow, Aukštoji Freda, Kaunas, Merkelis Račkauskas, Elena Račkauskienė, Adolf Hitler, Petras Cvirka, Andrius Cvirka

Duration: 3 minutes, 4 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012