Archive Response

While we were in Vilnius, we also took the opportunity to check the archive for the documents necessary to exercise the "right of return" and apply for Lithuanian citizenship. We visited both the Central Archive and the Historical Archive and viewed some documents, but ultimately requested for a couple searches to be done on our behalf. Last Friday I received the first response, and I've been trying to decipher it ever since. I finally resorted to some help from Elena. There's some really interesting (and some uncomfortable) information there!! The short of it, though, is that the documents held at the Central Archive aren't quite enough for the application yet: they show that močiute was resident there after 1940, but not that she was a citizen. Hopefully the request we made for her birth certificate will show this.

Response from the Central Archive

The interesting (and somewhat chilling) part of the letter says that močiute's first husband served in the "Vermachte" or Wehrmacht - the Nazi military!! It's not clear if he enlisted voluntarily or was conscripted during the occupation. I really hope that it is the latter. I know that he was a police officer, so hopefully they were simply folded into the ranks when the Germans arrived. The wikipedia entry on the Wehrmact does say that "the 'voluntary' nature of such recruitment was often rather dubious, especially in the later years of the war". Nevertheless, this reflects the rather uncomfortable fact that many Lithuanians welcomed the Nazis as liberators because they had chased out the Soviets.

I don't know if the record stating all this was made by the Germans (keeping track of their troops) or the Russians (compiling a hit list of enemy collaborators), but either way the family was marked. The document this letter is referring to is the reason my grandmother had to leave Lithuania. Otherwise she most certainly would have been deported to Siberia when the Soviets eventually returned.

The next part of the letter says that there are no other documents stating that my grandmother lived at that address (135 Vaidoto gatve, Kaunas), for example when the 1942 census was taken. Which means she must have been married after 1942 and should, thus, appear on the census with her family in Vilkaviškis or in Kaunas (with an aunt, I believe).

The final part of the letter gives the census details for the rest of the Apanavičius family, which affirms that I've got a match. Močiute's best recollection of the Apanavičius family is pretty darn close. It makes me want to contact them. The best I know is that they settled in Ohio (or was it Chicago?) - anyhow, I have it in močiute's old address book.

Apanavičius family as recalled by močiute.

TRANSCRIPTION:

In Vilnius labor exchange archive section about people whose relatives worked for police or vermachte ... during 1941-1944, there is a card for Apanavičienė Marija, born 1921, lived in Kaunas Vaidotas gatve 135. It is said in file that her husband (name not included) is serving vermacht.

Based on: F. R-626, ap. 1, b. 335, 1. 37.

NOTE: There are no more documents confirming that Marija Apanavičienė lived in Kaunas, Vaidotas gatve 135, or that she was Lithuania citizen in archives, [based on the details] you gave.

Documents about census before year 1940 the archives does not have.

According to Lithuania statistics archive, national census of Lithuania general area in 1942 May 27th, in Kaunas city, A. Panemunė land, Vaidotas st. 136, residents Jurgis Apanavičius household was:
- Jurgis Apanavičius, born 1889 in Kaunas, shop owner-assistant, head of family
- Marijona Apanavičienė, wife, born 1907 in Kaunas, Pažaislis, working member of the family
- Vytautas Apanavičius, son, born 1921 in Kaunas, finance manager (working place section says "Battalion")
- Algimantas Apanavičius, son, born 1928 in A. Panemunė
- Elvyra Apanavičiūtė, daughter, born 1932 in A. Panemunė
- Reimundas Apanavičius, son, born1934 in A Panemunė
- Marijonas Apanavičius, relative, born 1924 in Kaunas.
All persons of Lithuanian nationality (F.R-743, ap. 2, b. 2001)

The Man Who Bought a Horse

While we were in Pasvalys, Juozas Matulis (our grandfather's brother) told us a very interesting story that I'm not certain I'd ever heard before. There were several years that the family in Lithuania thought our grandfather was dead. He explained that not long after Vacys was taken by the Nazis, the family received word that (from a Lithuanian friend?) that he had been killed somewhere near Kaunas. And years passed before anything to the contrary came through. Juozas told us that it was in 1953 that the family received a letter postmarked from United States with a single sentence: "The man who bought a horse in [a specific year] is writing you a letter". They knew exactly what it meant - he had survived and made his way to America - but there was no way for the authorities to determine who it was.

The primary reason he had to flee was because the Soviets would have pegged him as an enemy. Despite being forced into labor by the Nazis, the Soviets would have made no distinction and deported him (and possibly the whole family) to Siberia. He couldn't go back or allow the Soviets to know he'd ever existed. It took him 5 entire years of living in the United States before he even decided to send that cryptic message. It had been about 10 since they'd seen him.

Here's a video of Juozas recounting the story for the camera. Unfortunately I can't (yet) understand it and translate here:

(Sorry for the bad audio, I accidentally deleted the second channel)

I know that he eventually was assured that it was safe to send communications because letters, postcards, and family photos were exchanged. But he lived under fear of the Soviets even 5000 miles away. His paranoia in later years is entirely understandable given these experiences.

I just wish he was still living so that I could get his recollection of the story. I may have even gotten pieces of it before, but without the bigger context, the fine details get lost. I recall clearly him talking about the brutality of the Nazis and the starvation conditions in which they were kept. And I remember him telling stories about sneaking out at night to steal food, in full knowledge that they'd be killed on the spot if they were caught. I wonder if he actually escaped for good, and engineered the whole story of his death to protect his family. Did he ask a friend to report to his family that he'd been killed? Where'd he go after that? And when did he decide that he would flee the approaching Soviets? Sadly, all the firsthand knowledge of this is now lost. I've got just one cassette of him talking, recorded by Nick, which might hold some clues. Now I've just got to find a tape deck!

This whole story, though, makes me wonder about močiute's brother Kazimieras. Her mother always believed that he was alive and would someday come find them. I always thought that belief was maintained because nobody ever got closure on his killing, but now I wonder, is there a chance he survived, assumed another identity, and never contacted the family for fear of putting them in danger? It's far-fetched and unlikely, but not impossible. If he didn't survive until independence, maybe it never would have been revealed.

Return to the Homeland

I'm just back from a return trip to the homeland. This time I brought two cousins from New York. They came over to Scotland at the start of the month, and we all traveled over to Lithuania a few days later. It was a really great time. We did a lot of the same things as I did last year (including meeting a lot of family!), plus a few extras like a journey to Nida, the Hill of Crosses, and caught a couple national basketball games. Jesse (my cousin), not be confused with Jessee (my partner), is a filmmaker, so we also did some shooting to make a short documentary. The plan is to expand it, later on, into a full length movie.

Meeting the Rolwich clan
(Jesse, Martin, Nick, me, Brian)

Festival Time

Portobello Beach

Calton Hill

First stop in Lithuania was Klaipeda and Nida to get a feel for the coastal area and spectacular environments. It was a quick trip, but very nice.

Dunes

Nida

Baltic Sea

We spent most of our time in Vilnius with second cousins, Elena and Vygintas.

Waiting on cepelinai with Elena and Vygintas

Old Town, Vilnius

The view from Elena and Vygintas's top floor flat.

We also met Sandra, another second cousin from another branch of the family.

Film Crew

Waiting of more cepelinai at my favorite place Dvaras Restoranas
(Elena, Sandra, Jesse, Nick, Vygintas, me)

And we took in the sights, such as the famed Vilnius TV Tower and Trakai Castle.

We made a trip to the hallowed grounds of the
Vilnius TV Tower, site of the January 13th events.

Beautiful day at Trakai

Trakai Castle

And back to Vilnius for the night.

Squeezed into the wee elevator on our way back up to V&E's.

Soviet style housing.

Interviewing Vygintas's brother Gytenis.

We also went to see Rumšiskes, an open-air village museum that has a collection of relocated, late 19th and early 20th century homes. They would have been much like the one my grandfather was born in. Unfortunately, we got there rather late and had intermittent downpours, so we didn't actually get to see that much of it. Another visit is definitely in order.

Probably not unlike the house in which Tevuk was born.

Rumšiskes
(Nick, Elena, Jesse, Vygintas)

We stayed nearby at Vygintas's family's place, which was a really nice spot outside of the city. Part of the reason we went there was to get the opportunity to interview his grandmother, who spent 10 years in exile in Siberia. Such an incredible woman. Her memory is quite clouded now, and her stories are circular, but so cheerful in spite of what she endured. She's quite happy now, and we didn't ask her to talk about anything that would have been traumatic (she no doubt witnessed brutality and starvation). Mostly she talked about the bears, which would intrude on their village and eat their berries. The possibility of bear encounters was clearly something that troubled them, as she repeated the story many times. It was a literal danger as well as a metaphorical one, given the symbolism of the Soviet Bear.

We made a circuit up north, as well, to see all the relatives: Pociuneliai, Mitriunai, Pakiršinys, Pasvalys, and Panevežys. We also stopped at Šiauliai to see the Hill of Crosses. It was a long day, and we met quite a few more people than I met last time.

Family branch stemming from Tevuk's brother, Valiukas.

Me, Jesse, Adolis, Nick, Kristina, Elena, Arunas

Nick, Adolis (Tevuk's brother), me, Jesse

Elena, Jesse, Danute, Juozas (Tevuk's brother), Arunas, Nick, me

Juozas and Adolis look like they could be twins, but I believe there's a couple years between them. Last stop before returning to Kaunas was Panevežys to see Ada, Tevuk's neice, and her wife Povilas.

Elena, Nick, Povilas, me, Arunas, Ada
Jesse

Of course we need to try on Povilas's Soviet and Lithuanian police uniforms.

Taking in the sights around Kaunas.

Filming in Old Town, Kaunas

Not quite the pose that močiute was in when she sat here some 70+ years earlier.

That's more like it.

Loreta Matuliene

Old Town, Kaunas

And we couldn't miss Arunas's workshop Potomkinas. When I went there last year, I knew that Jess and Nick would find it incredible, and sure enough they did. It's a massive space with a mish-mash of all sorts of art, projects, meditation space, construction, and junk (marvelous junk!).

Potomkinas

A magical place.

I love the look of some of this old stuff.

I think this would polish up nicely.

And of course Arunas took us on some of his "small excursions" to sites around the city, including the Second Fort, which is an old Imperial Russian emplacement that was bombed by the Germans when they invaded (during WWI).

Arunas looking godly at the Second Fort

Old Town, Kaunas

We saw two basketball games while we were there too, one at the start against Ukraine, and one on our last night against Slovenia. It was really something else! I especially wanted to see the game against Ukraine because of the current political situation. There is strong solidarity between the countries because Lithuanians understand what it's like to be the target of Russian aggression. There was at least a couple Ukrainian flags being flown in the die-hard Lithuanian fan section.

Solidarity

The second game we saw was even more exciting. We had much better seats - just ten rows up from the floor and directly behind Sabonis and Marčiulionis, who were in attendance (not to mention Algirdas Butkevičius, the current Prime Minister). Sabonis frequently attends games as head of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, but Marčiulionis was there to receive recognition for recently being inducted to the NBA Hall of Fame. It was a hard fought win, and the atmosphere was electric. Loreta came with us for this one, and I'm pretty sure we made a real fan out of her. We all had a really good time.

Sabonis and Marčiulionis!!

Darjus Lavrinovič

Mantas Kalnietis

Jonas Valančiunas

Big stars Sabonis and Marčiulionis awarding up-and-comer Valančiunas
with tournament MVP

Kalnietis accepting the team trophy for going undefeated in the
friendly tournament.

Team Photo

It was a fantastic trip, and it's astonishing how close of a bond you can form in such a short time. Jess and Nick both commented on that as well. It was as though we'd spent years together. They all really made us feel welcome.

Farewell!
(Nick, Loreta, Jesse, and Bella)

Vilnius from above.