The Baltic DPs Project: Recovering the History of the Displaced Persons

In 2014, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, together the Latvian Folk Art Museum and the Chicago Estonian House, are planning a yearlong series of exhibits, events and programs commemorating 70 years since the mass westward flight of Baltic Displaced Persons, refugees from the war-torn Baltic republics. The Baltic DP Exposition will include exhibits, programs and events, documenting the experiences of DP Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanians in European DP Camps; their subsequent immigration to the United States and Canada; and their contributions to their host countries, as well as to the countries they left behind.

The cornerstone of the Baltic DP Exposition will be an exhibit titled "Displaced to this Place", spanning three stages of the Baltic DP experience: pre-migration (an introduction to the events and circumstances which compelled the refugees to leave their Baltic homelands); migration (spanning refugees' flight from their Baltic homelands and life in the DP camps); and post-migration (their subsequent immigration and settlement in the United States and countries around the world). The exhibit will open in Chicago on April 26, 2014 and travel to other cities in North America and the Baltic Republics. A permanent online exhibit and website dedicated to Baltic WWII refugees, "DisplacedPersons.org" is also in development.

Close living quarters in a DP Camp - Source ECLA 

The exhibit will serve as a launch padfor a series of film viewings, educational programs, art exhibits, lectures, and other events about Baltic DPs, their experiences, and contributions world wide as well as for the exploration of the theme of displacement in general, whether by political, social, economic, or environmental forces.

Chilly Klaipeda

            Back home in Fredericksburg, where I’m from, Virginia Beach is about a four-hour drive. Because of this, my family does not exactly make a habit of going to the beach. However, after spending nearly a month in gray, urban Vilnius, I found myself longing for a change of scenery. I had heard about the beautiful, unspoiled natural beaches of Lithuania’s coast, so one cold day at the end of October I made the four-and-a-half hour bus trip west to Klaipeda with Matt, my fellow intern.

           Besides holding the status of Lithuania’s most important port city, Klaipeda also enjoys the distinction of being one of Lithuania’s top summertime resort destinations. Since Matt and I visited at the end of October, though, we saw the town in its off-season—with sunshine having made itself scarce and the streets empty of tourists. We ate a quick lunch in town and made a beeline for the ferry that would take us to the long shores of the Curonian spit.

            The Curonian spit is a long, narrow strip of sandy beach that hugs part of the coastlines of both Lithuania and Russia (Kaliningrad). It is sprinkled with several small towns and scenic beaches. The ferry ride from Klaipeda takes barely ten minutes; however, since Matt and I had recently disembarked from quite a long bus ride, this place felt like it was at the end of the world. We had no time to visit any of the towns along the spit, but we did take a path through the forests to the beach, where we saw the Baltic Sea.

Touching the waters of the Baltic Sea--and it was cold!

            It was cold, and rainy, so we didn’t stick around too long after seeing the beach. Despite the cold weather and the emptiness of the town, I was glad to have the opportunity to see another part of the country. This would definitely be a great place to visit in the summer! 

Lithuania's Honorary Consuls: Heinz Otto Veinsreideris

This is another installment in our continuing series profiling Lithuania's Honorary Consuls in the United States. Thanks to Aiste Zalepuga who conducted the interviews with each Consul and collected additional materials.

Heinz Otto Veinsreideris was born in Gotha, Germany to Lithuanian parents, and relocated to the United States six years later. He received his B.S. in Engineering and his MBA in Management and Finance from St. Cloud State University. He then began work with the 3M Company, from which he retired as Business Director in 2004 after a 37-year career.

Minnesota has a population of 5.3 million. It is home to the headquarters of a number of international corporations, including United Health, General Mills, Target, and Best Buy among others. It is also, according to the most recently reported census information, home to more than four thousand  Lithuanian-Americans and Americans with Lithuanian heritage.

The Lithuanian-American Community of Minnesota (LACMN) has about 200 regular members, and is the preeminent force of promotion for Lithuania and Lithuanian culture in the state. It sponsors activities like the Martyno Mazvydo School, designed to teach children from ages three to eleven to speak, read, and write Lithuanian, in addition to the country's history and traditions. LACM also sponsors a choir, a sports club, and a folk dance group. Annually, it holds a mid-February celebration of the original Lithuanian Independence Day of 16 February 1918, as well the second Independence Day on 11 March 1990. Celebrants partake in authentic Lithuanian food, and learn about Lithuanian history and independence through films, stories, and songs. At the May Festival of Nations in St. Paul, the LACMN hosts a Lithuanian cultural booth. In the summer, it holds the St. John's Day Festival, or Jonines Celebration. Then, in the fall, the community celebrates the completion of harvest time with genuine Lithuanian cuisine, the LACMN Lithuanian dance group, Vejava, and a children's show.

For Heinz Otto Veinsreideris, the Lithuanian culture is something imbedded within him. Following the end of World War II, he and his family immigrated to the United States with the assistance of the International Refugee Committee. They reached the U.S. in March 1949 aboard the USS General Sturgis and later settled in Long Prairie, Minnesota where his father worked for a large printing company. Although German by birth, Mr. Veinsreideris has always considered himself Lithuanian. "We only spoke Lithuanian at home," he told us, "and my sister and I still speak to each other in the language."

As Lithuania's Honorary Consul to Minnesota, Veinsreideris is in charge of Lithuanian affairs for the state, a task, he says, is composed of three parts: diplomatic, economic, and cultural. "In terms of diplomatic activities, these are largely the result of receiving requests for assistance by either individuals or various organizations," he explained. He is required to research and understand the Consulate's Lithuanian passport and visa requirements, length of stay restrictions, and visa issuance locations. If a Lithuanian citizen enters the U.S. illegally, specifically Minnesota, then Border Patrol notifies Mr. Veinsreideris. He then provides the necessary translation services, and any additional contact or general information that he/she might require.

Economic duties include membership on the American Lithuanian Economic Development Advisory Council, and ameliorating any further economic issues that arise at the Honorary Consul meetings in Washington, DC. As a member of the Consular Corps of Minnesota, he also meets six times each year with Minnesota business and political leaders, including Governor Dayton, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Senate Majority Leader. Their most recent topic of discussion was the possibility of an expansion of trade betweeen Minnesota and the international market.

To support Lithuanian culture in the United States, Veinsreideris has aligned himself with the LACMN (noted above). In addition, he is a Patron of the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, a contributor to the Lithuanian Fund, and a participant in the Global Honorary Consul meeting in Vilnius. His involvement with Lithuanian-Americans spans more than fifty years. He even attended the very first Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival in Chicago. His goals as Consul are to nurture the United States' already strong ties with Lithuania, and to further strengthen them through consular and economic negotiations in partnership with cultural awareness programs. 

All Saint's Day: See That My Grave is Kept Clean...

 Another installment from Dr. Windy Petrie, Associate Professor and English Department Chair at Colorado Christian University, who was a Fulbright grantee to Lithuania in 2006.

It’s Halloween in America today and my friend from Poland is as disgusted with it as ever.  After having lived in Lithuania, I think I understand why.  In America, we traditionally dress in scary, or funny, or vulgar, costumes and debauch ourselves with candy or by other means. We often celebrate by creating ugly or silly facsimiles of death and destruction, or by pretending to be someone we are not, and then, in the most innocent and cute way possible, we extort treats from neighbors we may not speak to the rest of the year. But in Eastern Europe, the real holiday is All Saints’ Day: November 1^st. It's treated as an official public holiday here: there’s no school and even most businesses were closed. But the change in the date of the holiday is the least of the differences between the two.

In Lithuania, people gather at the gravesites of family, friends, and, it appeared to my observation, also complete strangers to light candles and contemplate the lives of those who are now gone. There’s a remembrance of real lives lived, not a pretense at an alternative to real life, and there’s a ceremonial giving of respect, rather than a ritualistic receiving of treats.

These photos were taken in Bernadinu Cemetery, which  was first "commissioned" by the Bernadine monks in the early 1800's, and space seems to be at such a premium now, that we only found a handful of people buried there within the last 5 years. Most of the sites are very weathered, and the ground has shifted so much from being on a hill, excessive rain, and the freezing/thawing cycles of 200 years. On one visit, we saw a woman who was cleaning the weeds from a site, but she was quite old, and I could tell it was more than she could handle. There were also burning candles, or lanterns, on many sites scattered throughout the graveyard. The most recent date of death of those three was 1926. The one pictured shows a lantern lit in 2006 for someone who died in 1919.

Walking through the graveyard in the afternoon, I heard water and a scrub brush. I peered around the corner of a small mausoleum, and saw the man pictured. He was scrubbing the markers of the family plot. When you look at the rest of the graveyard, 99% of the markers have recent flowers planted on them, but they are covered in moss, broken, shifted, settled, or at least look like they are 100-200 years old. Not the ones he's looking after. They were sparkling. The dates on them range from 1913 to 1924. He was about 80-85 years old, and most likely never met the people whose graves he was tending so carefully. I was awed by his respect for family, tradition, and history.

That's him walking out of the cemetery...

And those are his markers...

Lithuanian Freedom Cheese: The Geopolitics of Gouda

If you have ever traveled, domestically or internationally, then you are no doubt familiar with the pre-departure onslaught of travel recommendations by family and friends. First, of course, they warn you of the locals. “Keep your wallet in your front pocket,” they tell you knowingly. “Or, better yet, store it in a pouch and wear it around your neck. That way nobody can steal it.” Next, they offer advice on the “must-see sights.” This is particularly true of those who have traveled to your intended destination. “Oh, you’re going to Vilnius?” they’ll ask. “You have to see Gediminas Tower!” And finally, they demand to know about the local cuisine. “So, what do the people eat there?” they’ll inquire with bated breath. The experienced traveler will then respond: “Oh, you know—rye bread, potatoes, berries and mushrooms, pork, smoked fish, and dairy,” all information that can be found with a simple Google search.

It is this lattermost question, though, that I find people back in the U.S. ask me most. “What is the food like in Lithuania?” Of course, they are most impressed by the dishes that are more thoroughly un-American, those like vėdarai, a sausage made of potato stuffed with the large intestine of a pig. But perhaps the largest surprise to my family and friends is the importance of dairy products here in Lithuania.

On my first trip to the local grocery, I learned very quickly that this is not the place where you will find American cheddar cheese. Lithuania has its own brands, notably—Pieno žvaigždės, Rokiškio sūris, Vilkyškių pieninė and Žemaitijos pienas—and their products line not one, but multiple store aisles. During my first meal at a Lithuanian restaurant, a brief glimpse at the menu revealed that virtually every dish contained meat, potatoes, and some form of dairy, whether cottage cheese, sour cream, or buttermilk. And while I certainly can’t profess to be a dairy connoisseur, I can say that I’ve yet to encounter a Lithuanian cheese I didn’t like!

Recently, however, I was introduced to a website called Freedom Cheese, dedicated to Lithuanian-made cheese that is banned in Russia. “In general, all of Lithuanian milk products are banned,” the website says, “so by buying them you will support democracy, freedom, openness, and integration.” The site goes on to say that, “Russia has a history of banning food products from countries with which it is sparring politically. It has, in the past, banned wine from Georgia, chocolate from Ukraine and, in 2010, chicken thighs from the U.S."

“Now,” the website continues, “it is Lithuania’s turn. Last week, Russia banned imports of Lithuanian dairy products after Gennady Onishchenko, the head of Russia’s health watchdog, said his agency found high traces of yeast, fungus and bacteria from intestinal tracts in them.” Ironically, this ban comes just one month before “Lithuania will host a summit at which three ex-Soviet states are expected to sign association agreements with the European Union, moving them farther outside Moscow's orbit.”

I certainly cannot comment on Russia’s motives; however, I can say that I’ve indulged in my fair share of Lithuanian dairy, and I’ve yet to experience any ill effects to my health. But what are your thoughts? Check out freedomcheese.com and share them below!

Happy Halloween!

It’s that time of year—fall in all its golden-leafed glory has settled into Vilnius and Halloween is just around the corner! On Saturday, October 26^th, the Embassy ushered in the spooky holiday almost a week early with the second annual “Monster Mash” 5k family run in Vingis Park. Employees, their families, and furry canine friends all braved the nippy autumn air to run (or stroll) through Vingis Park decked in an assortment of costumes and warm running clothes.

Everyone assembled at the starting line--on your marks, get set, go!

A view of the forest and river from the bridge in the park.

Some of the costumes were really creative! I know it was difficult for me to come up with my costume, so I was impressed with what others put together. I was particularly impressed with the Whitney family--they all coordinated as the Incredibles:

Cool costumes!

Danielle (our Presidential Management Fellow), Matt (the Political and Economic section intern), and I all improvised with what we had and this was our result:

 A pumpkin, Miley Cyrus, and Minnie Mouse.

The race was scenic and enjoyable. Vingis Park has paved running and cycling paths, and we weren’t the only ones out enjoying the crisp fall weather. In our bright orange t-shirts and interesting costume ensembles, we turned quite a few heads as we all circled around the running route! The race finished with the presentation of pumpkins to the first- and second-place winners, as well as the consumption of some delicious cake brought by the Deputy Chief of Mission and his wife.

 The winners with their pumpkin prizes--Jonathan Silberstein (R) and Drew Brown (L).

This race is just one of several great examples of how hard overseas posts work to coordinate family activities. Events like this are a nice way to get acquainted with the embassy community outside of the office—and for interns, that is definitely something to take advantage of.