In The Long Road Home, Ben Shepherd details why the Baltic Displaced Persons valued education above most everything else. When I read that section, I also recalled an article, "Culture in Adversity," by Linas Saldukas published in Lituanus in 2006. I linked to Saldukas's article once before, but it's worth a close, second read.
Saldukas does a great job of explaining how the World War II DPs were different from other immigrants. He also clarifies how the distinct DP experience shaped the foundation of the refugees' cultural lives in America. Sometimes, the DP experience distorted American life.
The numbers of educated people who fled the Baltic countries at the end of World War II is astonishing. It's no wonder that our families taught us that an education was the most important form of wealth. The expression at home was, "moklsa nė nėšči ant nugaros," or (loosely) "an education isn't like something a beast of burden carries on its back."
Erlangen, Germany, Spring 1947. My Mom, on the far right, and her medical-school classmates return from lecture. Look how sharp all of these DPs looked!
Displaced Persons living in the American-occupied zones of postwar Germany took steps to preserve Lithuanian culture and history.
After UNRRA established separate camps based on the national identity of the Displaced Persons, the DPs themselves began to administer their own camps. The DPs used signs, flags, and other symbols to identify the national origins of the particular camp.
Many Lithuanian camps, for example, erected miniature "Gedimino Stulpai"—or "Pillars of Gediminas"—in the central squares of the camp territory. Others also built miniature models of Lithuania's famous castle, the "Trakų pilis."
Pride of heritage also emerged in ceremonies, song and dance festivals, exhibits* ("parados") and other forms of "amateur cultural activities." These activities not only reminded the refugees of Lithuania, they also fueled the collective indignation about Soviet occupation of the homeland.
Seligenstadt, Germany, 1946. Lithuanians raise the national flag at the Displaced Persons camp. The women wear traditional folkdress.
*We have many more photos, for example, of the textile and doll exhibit that my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, helped organize in Schweinfurt; I'll get around to posting those, too.
