An exhibition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of mass deportations organized by L. Mažylis travels around Lithuania
Friday, December 3, 4 pm, Alytus Museum of Local Lore, Conference Hall (Savanorių St. 6, Alytus) Member of the European Parliament prof. Liudas Mažylis presented the exhibition “Letters of Pain and Hope from the Cold Land”. The exhibition is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the mass deportations. It exhibits letters from exile sent to the children of Mažyliai in Kaunas.
“Almost every family in Lithuania has been touched by the horrors of deportations carried out by the Soviet communist government. It is difficult not to live what to say from the deportees on their way to the gulags in Siberia and the North. I do not dare to talk about their stories, it is too sensitive, says prof. L. Mažylis. – But the very right to let them speak for themselves – in the lines of their letters sent to Lithuania. I hope that the exhibition will show the letters sent to my family to reveal and discover the reality of the tragic history of deportations. ”
The exhibition presents authentic letters from the camps, their unedited content, which contains real stories of experiences, pain, hunger, cold, permeated with longing, memories and full of hope. “When your nation went through an attempt to destroy, when it destroyed hundreds of destinies, when children, women and men were killed – we must constantly remind the public to share these tragic experiences – so that this story will never happen again,” says L. Mažylis.
The exposition includes letters from Juozas Sirutis, Petronėlė Sirutytė-Lastienė, Ona Matulaitytė-Stulginskienė and Jonas and Ona Siručiai addressed to Antanina Mažylienė.
The exhibition at the Alytus Museum of Local Lore will be exhibited throughout December.