Weekend Games

Tinley Park, Illinois, June 1967. Team games confuse me.

Volleyball or Table Tennis?

Camp Aušra (later Camp Kretinga), Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, 1957. The weather is warming; sharpen your game.

Camp Games

Camp Aušra (later Camp Kretinga), Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, Summer 1959. Another volleyball game is underway at the Lithuanian summer camp.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

Get ready for the competition.

Camp Aušra (later Camp Kretinga), Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, Summer 1959. Kadis, the husband of my Dad's twin sister Jonė, oversees erection of the volleyball net at the Lithuanian summer camp.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

UPDATE: A reader emails, "It’s a high jump pit not a volleyball net."

Will you get selected for the game?

Camp Aušra (later Camp Kretinga), Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, Summer 1959. A volleyball game gets underway at the Lithuanian summer camp. I'm posting this photo because I was just commenting this morning about my misery during high school gym class.

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to us.

At the net.

Würzburg, Germany, 1946. The Displaced Persons engage in another volleyball game.

Thanks to my friend Kris for making this photo available to us.

Closing Ceremony

Würzburg, Germany, 1946. The Displaced Persons who formed the men's volleyball team march after their game. My friend Kris's Uncle Al is second from the right; he's the one with the longer, wavy hair brushed to the side.

Thanks to my friend Kris for making this photo available to us.

The Volleyball Team

Würzburg, Germany, 1946. A group of Displaced Persons prepares for another volleyball match. Uncle Al, the maternal Uncle of my friend Kris, stands second the right.

Thanks to Kris for making this photo available to us.

Volleyball

Würzburg, Germany, 1946. Displaced Persons at the Würzburg camp engage in a volleyball game.

Thanks to my friend Kris for making this photo available to us.

The Sporting Life

Sports were among the cultural activities that bonded Lithuanian nationals in the DP camps. The DPs often staged basketball games and volleyball matches with Lithuanians from other camps. The Lithuanian DPs also waged athletic rivalries with other nationals housed in nearby DP camps.

Schweinfurt, Germany, about 1946. I don't know the sport in which this group was about to engage. It is unusual, though, because it is a team made up of both genders. Maybe it was a race?

Thanks to my Toronto Cousin for making this photo available to me.

Normal Activities Under Abnormal Circumstances

It's easy to forget that most World War II refugees lived in the Displaced Persons camps for four or five years. For those seeking permission to emigrate to the United States, it took an Act of Congress—the Displaced Persons Act of 1948—to authorize their arrival.

Many Displaced Persons, like my Parents, filled their time in the American-occupied zone of Germany by going to school or working (or both). People fell in love, had children, engaged in hobbies, relaxed in parks, and played sports.

They loved their sports:

Schweinfurt, Germany, 1948. A group of DPs gets ready to play a game of volleyball.

 

 

Schweinfurt, Germany, 1948. The game begins.