The Life Box (Part 7)

Our little Lithuanian school issued notebooks to the students. The notebooks illustrated the Displaced Persons' love of homeland and their determination to teach Lithuanian culture to their children.
 
I still have two of the notebooks. This is how they look:
 

 
The notebooks both highlight the Lithuanians' love of poetry. The fellow pictured, Vincas Kudirka, wrote the Lithuanian national anthem.
 
The photo caption states that Kudirka was a "Didysis Lietuvos laisvės kovotojas," or "an important Lithuania freedom fighter." No one told us authorities once arrested Kudirka for carrying around a copy of Das Kapital.
 

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The back cover features a photo of a monument erected in Kudirka's honor and a poem, "We are born Lithuanians."

 

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The second notebook has an image of the poet-priest, Maironis, on its cover. J.A.V. or " Jungtinės Amerikos Valstijos," means "United States of America." Translated simply, bendruomenė

means "community." The word implies a "common viewpoint" ("bendras" is the word for "common"); it also speaks to "cultural feelings" that a group shares. The "Lithuanian community of the United States" thus distributed the notebooks to a "Lituanistinė Mokykla," or "Lithuanian School."

 

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This notebook's back cover shows an image from Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, and a short poem by Maironis. The graphic at the bottom left represents Gedimino Stulpai resting on a rue branch.

 

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 What's inside this notebook? Nothing. It looks like I tore a page out of it, though.

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In the second notebook I drew a picture (crayon on paper) of the Lithuanian flag and a sunset.