3 - War Years: 1941–1944

Summary

HINSEY: After Germany's invasion of Lithuania and your mother's return from prison, you were living in Freda near Kaunas. What was the state of Kaunas?

VENCLOVA: Kaunas had escaped destruction and appeared peaceful on the surface, except that certain buildings were guarded by soldiers. Kaunas was a fairly modern city at that time, full of Art Deco buildings, and its cinemas, cafés, and dancehalls were all still open. As far as I remember, the buses were also running, and the numerous city gardens were full of people. Even the bridges, if I am not mistaken, were intact and had not been blown up by the retreating Soviet Army.

HINSEY: Do you have any other precise visual memories of the German occupation?

VENCLOVA: Once or twice my mother took me to Laisvės Alėja, the main boulevard, where she used to stroll during her student years. A German sentinel at one building offered me a candy, but my mother ignored this proposal, to my great dissatisfaction. A black flag with two lightning bolts flapped in the wind atop of one of the buildings some distance from Laisvės Alėja—my mother explained that these were, in fact, the letters “SS.” “What is the SS?” I asked. “Well, it's a sort of military office, but it's best not to speak about it.” In Freda, we almost never saw Germans, but there was at least one outright collaborator who sometimes visited us uninvited; once, in a tipsy state, he took a handgun from a satchel and demonstrated his prowess by shooting a bird in the garden. He made his living by black-market profiteering, and disappeared without a trace just before the Soviets returned.

HINSEY: Did your mother experience further problems with the Germans?

VENCLOVA: Technically, my mother was under police surveillance, at least for a time. Once policemen came to Grandfather's house and searched the barn, as somebody had informed them that a Russian soldier, who had escaped from a POW camp, might be hiding there. They ordered Mother to enter the barn before them, threatening her with a gun—apparently they were afraid that a gunfight might break out. The barn was empty. (The POW camp was on the banks of the Nemunas, not far from the railway bridge, and we knew that the fate of the POWs was unenviable.