Identifications

Many old photos that we have are passport pictures and identification snapshots. This image of Zigmas, the younger brother of my maternal Grandfather, Jake, likely was taken for his work at the "Spaudos Fondas," or Press Foundation.

Pre-war Lithuanians, like most Europeans, carried "national identity," or internal, passports. Zigmas alternatively may have had the photo taken for such an internal passport.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1930. Zigmas always looks happy.

Thanks to my "New" Cousin for making this photo available to me.

Where will this take you?

Lithuania, about 1939. This is Kadis, the husband of my Dad's twin sister, Jonė. It's a passport photo—the edge of the image has the "Republic of Lithuania" stamp. I don't know whether Kadis used it for his internal passport or whether he planned to travel abroad. At this time, however, he likely didn't imagine that he soon would land in Salzburg, Austria as a Displaced Person.

Easy to Read

My paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, sat for this passport photo at around the time her husband, Vytautas, traveled to Belgium. I don't know whether this image was part of an internal passport or whether it identified Tatjana for foreign travel.

Kaunas, Lithuania, 1936. Here's how Tatjana looked ten years later, and here she was, ready to emigrate to the United States. Tatjana's face wore the weariness of hard times throughout her life.

"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!"

Identification

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1938. This is one photo Mom used for her internal passport.