A Look Inside the Student Booklet

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Kaunas, Lithuania, 1940 to 1944. Here's the booklet my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, carried through medical and later dental school. The second column lists the university subject (example: "Fizika" is "Physics"). The third column states the number of hours spent on each subject during the week. The fourth and fifth columns present the professors' names and signatures for each subject. The sixth column provides the date the work (what we consider "credits," I think) was completed. The last column lists the date of the subjects' examinations, the grades (example: "l. gerai" is "very good"), and the professors' signatures.

Jonė's Student Booklet

Kaunas, Lithuania, September 16, 1939. This is the "Studies Booklet" my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, received when she enrolled in medical school. The outbreak of World War II interrupted her studies: the sentence added at the top of page indicates Jonė transferred from medical school to dental school in 1943.

Although the same university—Vytautas Magnus University—issued "Studies Booklets" for both Jonė and my Mom, Jonė's earlier version omits the warning about keeping the document clean.

Aproned

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1943. This is my Mom as a medical student. She sat for this photo around the time Vytautas Magnus University reopened after the first Soviet occupation.

Another Study Break

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1942 or 1943. Some of my Mom's medical-school classmates at Vytautas Magnus University share a laugh.

"Nostalgia" ...

... for a complicated past.

Departure approaching.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1943 or 1944. Here's Mom while she still was enrolled at the medical school of Vytautas Magnus University. She sat for this photo not long before she and her father, Jake, fled Lithuania.

Student Body

Kaunas, Lithuania, March 4, 1943. Here are the medical and dental students gathered together at Vytautas Magnus University. My Mom identified herself with a red check mark.

Roughly equal numbers of women and men made up the medical-school, student body. At the dental school, women slightly outnumbered men.

"We will take care to keep this Booklet clean!"

After my Mom graduated from high school, she selected this photo for both her internal passport and for her medical-school identification at Vytautas Magnus University.

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1941. Mom still wears her high-school uniform in this photo.

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Here is the photo, in context, as part of Mom's medical-school "Studijų Knygelė," or "Studies Booklet." The Booklet acted as both a form of identification and as a report card. After the inside cover, reproduced below, establishes the student's identity, the remaining twenty or so pages consist of a record of the courses the student took, the professors who taught the courses, the date the student completed coursework, and the grades the students earned in each class.

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1941. When the Germans closed the university, many professors continued teaching classes on an "audit" basis. Occasionally, the professors conducted these "auditing" classes in their homes; later, they sometimes secured permission to use classrooms. Eventually, the Germans reopened the medical school.

Evidence of these developments appears on Mom's Booklet. The word "studentas" is crossed out in black ink and replaced with the word "hospitantė," or "auditor." Mom became an auditor when the school closed. Later, the red-inked "studentė" (the feminine form of "student") replaced "hospitantė," indicating that the school had reopened, and Mom reenrolled as a regular student.

The Booklet also shows a glimmer of the authoritarian nature of those times. At the bottom of the inside cover appears an admonishment: "Šią Knygelė išsaugokime švarią!" In English, that reads, "We will take care to keep this Booklet clean!"

Dare

Before my Mom fled Lithuania, she began her medical-school studies at Vytautas Magnus University. Mom forged many close friendships at that institution.

One afternoon, she and a friend "dared" two of their male classmates to comb their hair while someone snapped a photograph. Lithuanians consider it crass to engage in public in any acts of personal grooming—like hair combing, nail filing, or using a toothpick.

This blurry image captures that notorious "dare:"

 
Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1942 or 1943. My Mom, second from left, gestures to the wild and crazy guys. She sports the same coat she later wore as a refugee.

Sunny Skies in Troubled Times

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1942 or 1943. Medical students at Vytautas Magnus University enjoy the weather. My Mom, in a striped cardigan, stands just left of center in the middle of the group.

UPDATE: Mr. Irene observed that this photo is quite similar to the one I posted earlier from the same era. He wondered whether the two photos weren't taken on the same day.

It's possible, but the fact that my Mom is wearing the same outfit is no clue. People owned fewer items of clothing then, and it's likely that Mom just wore the same thing on two different days. Besides, the weather looks colder in this photo. Here, people are wearing outer coats.

What's so funny?

Mom doesn't remember what she and her medical-school classmates found funny here. The students were exiting the clinics at Vytautas Magnus University.

After the Russians occupied Lithuania in 1944, my Mom and her Dad, Jake, fled the country. Mom resumed her studies after World War II at the University of Erlangen in the American-occupied zone of post-war Germany.

Stripes must have been the fashion for women that season:

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1942 or 1943. Here's another group of college kids that looks as good as every generation of young people. My Mom is the second from right.