Zigmas Zarunskis was 14 months old when he, with his family, were deported to Siberia. At the age of 14 years, instead of attending school, he was assigned to work as a lumberjack. While chopping trees, a limb fell down on him, killing him. The photograph was mailed to a relative in Jackson Heights, New York.
Konstancija and Jonas Marmas, with their three children, in the Krasnoyarsk Region of Siberia
The Marmas family was deported, from their family farm in Griskabudis to work as lumberjacks for 10 years. The uncle of Jonas Marmas was Dr. Vincas Kudirka, the author of the Lithuanian national anthem. Possibly it was because of this familial relationship that they were deported. Continue Reading →
Dobilas Ralys and his mother in Siberia. The letter was written by his sister, Ramune Ralys, and was sent to their uncle, V. Cizinas, in Paterson, New Jersey. In this letter she details some of her own life events upon being exiled to Siberia with her family. She was attending the 7th grade at the time of deportation. In the Krasnoyarsk District’s farm labor camp (kolkhoz) the middle school was located 2 miles away, which she attended until completing grade 10. At that time, she took over the labor tasks of her mother, who was too ill to work.
Morta Abromaviciene, at the age of 67, was deported to Siberia with her husband Stasys, who was 74. Mr. Abromavicius died 3 years later, while Mrs. Abromaviciene was able to serve her prison term in Tinsk, in the Krasnoyarsk District. After 7 years of hard labor, her health was broken–she was so frail and weak that she was transferred to the Tupik sanatorium, in the Shirinsky District of Khakassia, for one year to recover. It was while she was in the sanatorium, that she was able to write letters to one of her daughters, who was living in Chicago.
Barbora Nakutiene with her three children, Pranyte, Alfonsas and Grazinute, in Zalari, Irkutsk Oblast, near Lake Baikal. Her husband, Juozas Nakutis was deported 300 miles further, to Tayshet.
This letter was written by Grazinute to her uncle, Mykolas Nakutis, living in Sydney, Australia. She writes that she will be starting the 6th grade, Pranyte the 4th grade, and Alfonsas, the 3rd grade, and that they are all studying quite well. She is very thankful for having received a pair of warm shoes that she expects to wear for several years. Continue Reading →
Rozalija Stulginskiene’s son, Father Vaclovas Stulginskis, was a deacon at the Kaunas Theological Seminary. In 1941 he was murdered by occupying German Nazi forces.
In 1947, because she owned a small family farm, she was deported to Siberia by occupying Stalinist forces. Continue Reading →
This is a most unusual two page letter, written in Russian. It appears to be a transcription of letters written by Kazimieras Gaigalas to his wife and son. He is in the Riesoty gulag prison camp, near Krasnoyarsk, writing to his family who is in another Siberian location, near Tomsk. The distance separating them is about 300 miles. There are a total of 8 transcribed letters dating from October 21, 1942 to July 21, 1943.
My grandmother, Ona Pliopliene, was deported to Siberia, to serve a 12 year term of hard labor. Her husband, Motiejus Plioplys, had recently been murdered by the NKVD (Soviet secret police). In addition my great-grandfather, my other grandfather and an aunt were also killed by the NKVD. Besides my grandmother, 7 other aunts and uncles were likewise deported to Siberia.
Mary Vysniauskiene, with her three young sons, was deported to Siberia for eleven years. In this letter she writes of her first days in exile. Upon arrival she had to sell her few clothes, leaving her and her sons only with the clothes on their backs, and two small pillows. She used the little money she received to buy potatoes to feed her children.
Elena Juciute was a high school mathematics teacher in Pilviskiai, Lithuania. (The Plioplys village is located in this city, and is where my father and his forefathers were born and raised.) In response to the mass deportations and slaughter of innocent people, she started to provide paper-work support to the underground resistance movement. She was caught and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in a Soviet gulag.
