Join The Lithuanian Rat PackLABAS
The Lithuanian E-Zine
Vol 3, #3: February, 2000
CREDITSEditor: Bernard Tirva
Website Design: Sandra Savickas, WebmasterREQUEST FOR SUBMISSIONS
If you have an article for LABAS, submit to: Bernard Tirva, Editor
A SPECIAL TRIBUTE
by Rimgaudas
I read in one of the e-mails on the LithRatPack about persons being in despair because they can’t find their relatives and the suggestion was made that perhaps they were sent to Siberia and the whole family was wiped out. About that time, I pulled out one of my Lithuanian books: Frozen Inferno, a short story of a young lady who, with her family, was deported to Siberia and lived to tell about it.
I will reproduce this story here in LABAS because it is something we should not forget - what happened to our brothers and sisters during the Soviet occupation and because it contains names of families that perished in that “Frozen Inferno” known as the Gulag.
In conjunction with the story to follow, I found this dedication and poem apropos:
My sienalis, Petras Vidziunas, was born in the Raseinai area of Lithuania. In World War I, he was shot by the roadside by Germans and left for dead. He survived, by playing dead.This poem is dedicated in my Grandfather, Petras Vidziunas, in memory to those that did not survive the Siberia Labor Camps. I'm sure Petras' spirit is with them and they are now singing songs and telling stories with the angels in eternal peace ... RimgaudasIn World War II, the Soviets took his farm and sawmill and deported him to Siberia for 10 years. He survived. He came to Illinois and I had the pleasure of drinking vodka and listening to his stories. He even showed me his bullet hole scar.
He later wanted to go back to Lithuania for he knew he would die soon. I was there at the airport to say my final farewell.
Poems by Kazys Bradunas ( Born 1917 )
LITHUANIAN GRAVES IN SIBERIA
The taiga burns with northern flames.
Graves grip crosses.
Above them, winging slowly,
Hawks glide - black hawks.A storm climbs the sky,
Blows sound beneath the earth.
The souls of the dead are quieted
By the voices of their homeland.There is enough dirt for bones.
Even more for ashes.
A bloody flower blooms
In eternity's palm.Northern flames die on the taiga.
Graves won't let go of their crosses.
Over them, beating their wings,
Hawks settle, black hawks.Translated by Jurgis Bradunas
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FROZEN INFERNO: Part I
2nd Polish Army Corps General Wladyslaw Anders, a Lithuanian from Zemaitijai
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