Leslie and Lydia (Vienna)
Last week I travelled to one of the more unusual destinations I (or anyone I know) have been to where I attended a conference held by FAWCO (Federation of American Womens' Clubs Overseas) -- in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.
Because this was a very intense conference, there was little time to see the city with a couple of exceptions, but let me tell you a little bit about this very interesting place which borders Latvia, Belarus, Poland and a small part of Russia.
Just 26 miles north of Vilnius is actually the geographical center of Europe (no kiddin'). Of course, there are several definitions of what the term means, but since I've just been to Vilnius, I'm going with this one. And this location is the only one listed in the Guiness Book of Records :)
Lithuania has been an official member of the European Union and NATO since 2004 and declared its independence only in 1990.
Lithuanian money is Litas (right now $100 is about 235 Litas, and €100 is 349 Litas), and the language is Lithuanian. We learned only to say thank you (aciu - sounds like achoo!) and please (prasom - similar to thank-you in Czech, prosim, which I learned many years ago from Dr. Borek Janek, a former colleague who emigrated from the former Czechoslovakia). Lithuania is made up of 83% Lithuanians, 7% Poles and 6% Russians.
I spent my only free morning with my friend Elizabeth at the KGB museum (which is also the KGB prison) which was, as you can imagine, chilling and very sobering. It was here that I learned about the sad history of Lithuania that was occupied, for more than 50 years, by both the Soviet Union and Germany. I can't possibly imagine how awful it would have been.
We listened to actual recordings of conversations taped and monitored by the KGB. Graphic photos, personal diaries and artifacts are gruesome reminders of the atrocities committed there for so many years. Conditions were far worse than my imagination will take me.
The basement is the home to the most chilling part of the museum because it was the KGB prison. I sat only for a moment in a coffin-sized metal holding cell, saw the water torture chamber, the padded cell, and the interrogation room. At the end of the hallway is the execution chamber. One can see how the floor is sloped towards a drain, to make it easier to clean the leftover blood.
It is just, to me, as it is to most of us, unimaginable. Certainly it makes one appreciate freedom all the more. It puts things into perspective, that's for sure, and reminds me how very lucky I am. Heavy stuff.
In June 1940, Stalin's Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance with the a secret pact between the Soviet Union and Germany. A year later it was occupied by Germany. After the retreat of the German armed forces in 1944, Lithuania was once again occupied by the Soviet Union.
In May of 1948 more than 36,000 men, women, and children were arrested and deported, in thirty two convoys, within a 48 hour period. From 1944 to 1952 approximately 100,000 Lithuanians participated in partisan fights against the Soviet system, and against the Red Army. More than twenty thousand partisans were killed in those battles and many more were arrested and deported to Siberia.
During the Soviet and Nazi occupations between 1940 and 1944, Lithuania lost over 780,000 residents. Among them were around 190,000 Jews, one of the highest total mortality rates of the Holocaust. Somewhere between 120,000 to 300,000 people were killed or exiled to Siberia, and others sent to German forced labor camps, or emigrated to western countries.
Forty-six years of Soviet occupation ended with the advent of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s. Lithuania proclaimed its renewed independence on March 11, 1990. Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to do so, though Soviet forces unsuccessfully tried to suppress this secession. The last Red Army troops left Lithuania on August 31, 1993.
On February 4, 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognize Lithuanian independence. Sweden was the first to open an embassy in the country.
The United States of America never recognized the Soviet claim to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Russia currently refuses to recognize the occupation of Lithuania, claiming that Lithuanians decided to join the Soviet Union voluntarily, although Russia signed a treaty with Lithuania before the disintegration of the USSR which acknowledged Lithuania's forced loss of sovereignty at the hands of the Soviets, thereby recognizing the occupation.
On a (much, much) lighter note, we also attended the ballet (the Lithuanian's National ballet performing Sleeping Beauty) on the Friday night. Long story short, I ended up in the front row (and the good kind of front row seat - on the level above the orchestra with proper distance between seats and stage). It was spectacular, really. The dancing, the costumes, the ambiance of the opera house... Unfortunately, because of our level of exhaustion, and our desire to have a non-traditional Lithuanian meal which was what we were fed at the hotel, we left at intermission - but saw enough to be entertained and impressed.
ANYWAY, I attended this amazing conference (in preparation for my new role as President of AWC The Hague which will be official in a couple of weeks) where I met some of the most accomplished and inspiring women on the planet. Wow.
As an added bonus, I was able to practice my photography as the official event photographer (My-Linh Kunst pictured above) was snowed in in Berlin for the first couple of days and I was asked to fill in. Cool! 700+ photos later I'm still sorting through them all.
After a week of early morning starts, long days, evening events and nightcaps in the hotel bar, I was glad to come home. I'll mention, too, that our luggage (mine and my roommate's) spent the first night in Prague, with us in Vilnius (the perils of travel). We coped, and had fun with the circumstance (what other choice was there?) and it created a bond between my roommate, Anne, and I who I didn't know each other at all before this trip. I can honestly tell you that in retrospect, we're both kinda glad it happened! Also a challenge, Anne arrived at Schipol sans Passport (don't ask) with no option but to try travelling as a Dutch citizen on her EU license (perfectly legal - but....) - Well, it took a bit of talking and some phonecalls by airport personnel in Amsterdam, Prague and Vilnius, but we made it back and forth without incident.
It is nice to be home again, but I wouldn't have missed this experience for the world!
Left: Sally, Monika, Leslie & Susan
