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A Flight to Fame, to Oblivion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Gražina Sviderskytė
Gražina Sviderskytė*
Affiliation:
Vilnius University, Faculty of History, Universiteto Str. 7, LT–01122 Vilnius, Lithuania. E-mail: sviderskyte.g@gmail.com
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Abstract

This paper investigates a case study of memory transformation. It looks at an 80-year sequence of complex interactions by which a single tragedy, the transatlantic flight and deadly crash in Germany (now Poland) of two American-Lithuanian pilots, which occurred 17 July 1933, was turned into a lasting phenomenon, a powerful myth (re)shaped by competing memory regimes. A general discussion on memory management and the cultural politics related to this event correlates with the topical issues of the ongoing search for a new conception, or the sense of history as a tool for configuring the future of Lithuania, as well as of some other Eastern European countries.

Type
Regimes of Memory II
Information
European Review , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 2016 , pp. 491 - 508
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2016 

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References

References and Notes

1.The pilots were naturalised American citizens by Lithuanian origin; in their American passports, which were issued in 1932 and were found in the airplane’s cockpit after the crash, their names were transcribed as Stephen William Darius and Stanley Girch. Darius (not to be confused with the name of the Persian king, which is pronounced differently in Lithuanian) was a legal family name thought-up and adopted in 1917 by Stephen, who was born as Jucevicius, or Jucus. Girenas was a pseudonym ‘invented’ for the purpose of promotion in 1932 for Stanley, who was born as Girskis, or Girch. Here, we refer to the names by which they are known traditionally: Darius and Girenas.Google Scholar
2.Quotes were taken from the popular press and history books, e.g. Bumblauskas, A., Eidintas, A., Kulakauskas, A. and Tamošaitis, M. (2013) The History of Lithuania (Vilnius: Eugrimas), p. 196.Google Scholar
3.In a way, this study itself is proof of the viability of the Grand Narrative with a transformable myth at its core, as it is based on the first known attempt to use a scientific approach to solve the historiographical riddles. The methods include the monitoring of memory manifestations in culture politics, public communication and other social activities, as well as comprehensive empirical research and several interdisciplinary explorations. The findings have provided solid proof that the basic aspects of the subject of the Grand Narrative, i.e. those things that rule our social life and physical world, such as politics and law or aviation mechanics and climatology, had never been researched thoroughly or even seriously questioned. For this reason, this text has a double function: to generalise the results of a comparative analysis of empirical and historiographical research with an application of the insights of acclaimed researchers in the field of memory and identity.Google Scholar
4.An idea of the unprocessed historic trauma and memory regimes here is to be referred to the general concept developed by Iván Zoltán Dénes: Dénes, I. Z. (2013) European Review, 21(4), 465–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Here, we appeal to the studies of Nerija Putinaitė, a philosopher and former vice minister of Science and Education of the Republic of Lithuania. For example, Putinaitė, N. (2004). Šiaurės Atėnų tremtiniai (Vilnius: Aidai), p. 237 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
6. Putinaitė, N. (2004) Šiaurės Atėnų tremtiniai (Vilnius: Aidai), p. 235 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
7.In reference to Tilmans, K., van Vree, F. and Winter, J. (eds) (2010) Performing the Past: Memory, History, and Identity in Modern Europe (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press).Google Scholar
8.A 2012 TNS Gallup poll found that Lithuanians were the saddest people in the world after residents of Singapore, Armenia, Iraq, Georgia, Yemen, Serbia and Belorussia.Google Scholar
9. In reference to King, T. (2012) The inconvenient Indian. A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Canada: Anchor), p. 20.Google Scholar
10. Putinaitė, N. (2004) Šiaurės Atėnų tremtiniai (Vilnius: Aidai), p. 234 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
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12.Archival findings proved that a certain oddity of commemoration in Lithuania in the 1930s was most likely caused by a double political force majeure: by Germany’s shifting foreign policy and secretly fuelled ongoing military preparations (interestingly, a few years later a certain German territory just about 15 km away from the crash site of the Lituanica was declared a non-flying zone) and also by continuous tensions in Lithuanian–German relations (which reached their highest peak in 1934–1935 during the so-called Naumann-Sass process – a notorious trial by which 87 Nazi activists from the autonomous region of Klaipėdos kraštas or Memelland, were judged and sentenced in Kaunas).Google Scholar
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14.Assumptions grounded on memoirs, also on NKVD/ KGB files on Tomas Zauka, the last head of the Darius and Girenas Committee, and on sculptor Vytautas Mačiuika, and also on general Kaunas KGB files in the Lithuanian Special Archive, as well as on some private archives.Google Scholar
15.In der Nacht vom 16. Zum 17.7.33 gegen 0.30 Uhr […] das amerikanische Ozeanflugzeug, ‘Lituanica’, das in New-York zum Ozeanflug nach Litauen gestartet war, abgestürzt und vollkommen zertrummert. […] Die inzwischen eingetroffene Litauische Gesandtschaft hat die Ueberführung der Leichen und den Abtransport des Flugzeuges nach Litauen veranlasst. […]. [Emphasis by G. S.; In the night of 16 to 07/17/33 around 0.30 o’clock [...] the American ocean flyers’ airplane, ‘Lituanica’, which earlier took off from New York to fly across the ocean to Lithuania, crashed and was destroyed completely. [ ...] The now arrived Lithuanian Embassy has initiated the transfer of the bodies and the removal of the aircraft to Lithuania.] Police report to the officials in Soldin and to the office of oberpresident of Frankfurt-on-the- Oder, 17 July 1933. Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv rep. 3B, I pol., nr. 1940, p. 11/17.Google Scholar
16. Walzer, M. (1967) On the role of symbolism in political thought. Political Science Quarterly, 82(2), p. 194. Walzer’s argument is critically discussed in the general context of a state-building idea and ‘state-builders concerns’ by Heather Rae: H. Rae (2002) State Identities and Homogenisation of Peoples (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 3, 16, 50. Also, see B.S. Osborne (2001) Landscapes, memory, monuments, and commemoration: putting identity in its place. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 33(3), pp. 39–51. Walzer’s citation is commented on in the following sociological study: I. Sutiniene (2009) The symbols of national history in Lithuanian national imagination: the images of national heroes. Sociologija. Mintis ir veiksmas, 1(24), pp. 40–62 [in Lithuanian].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Documents from the Lithuanian State Central Archives (LCVA): Usinger, Hattendorff, Baumert (1933) Report from the Brandenburg province of the Berlin Oberprezident’s office, L. u. 1119/33, Charlottenburgh; LCVA, f. 383, ap. 7, b. 1471, 25–34. A. Gustaitis, V. Morkus, V. Reimontas and A. Gavelis (1933) The Act of the conclusions of the official investigation, compiled by a subcommittee led by the head of the technical department of the Lithuanian Air Force, Colonel Lieutenant A. Gustaitis. LCVA, f. 383, ap. 7, b. 1471, 49–54 (in Lithuanian). Appendixes I–IX held in the Private Archive (not specified by owners’ will) (in German and Lithuanian). Related publications: G. Sviderskytė (2012) The ‘lost’ appendixes of the Act of the official investigation into the crash of the Lituanica. Naujasis židinys–Aidai, 7, pp. 478–483; G. Sviderskytė (2013) The official investigations into the crash of the Lituanica in 1933: new facts and insights. Lietuvos istorijos studijos, 31, pp. 98–114. G. Sviderskyte (2014) Why the United States of America did not Investigate The Crash of the Lituanica? Legal and political aspects of the ‘Darius & Girch’ File. Istorijos šaltinių tyrimai, 5, pp. 195–211 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
18.‘Darius & Girch’ File (1933) United States National Archives RG 59, B5269, 811.79660M-DARIUS & GIRCH/ 1-73. Explicit commentary: G. Sviderskyte (2014) Why the United States of America did not Investigate the crash of the Lituanica? Legal and Political Aspects of the ‘Darius & Girch’ File. Istorijosšaltinių tyrimai, 5, pp. 195–211 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
19.The US Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Kaunas Maurice L. Stafford provided explicit reports about the aftermaths of the Lituanica crash to the Department of State. In a Strictly Confidential note he implies that the Lithuanian government has not foreseen possible complications and had not projected concrete measures to be taken in regards of the widely desirable explanation and commemoration of the tragedy. He stated that ‘the investigation was ordered to satisfy the public demand’. United States National Archives RG 59, B5269, 811.79660M-DARIUS & GIRCH/ 24.Google Scholar
20. Sviderskytė, G., Rimkus, E. and Stankūnavičius, G. (2014) Weather conditions during a transatlantic flight of Lituanica on July 15–17, 1933. Baltica, 27(2), pp. 119–130.Google Scholar
21. Sviderskytė, G. and Silva, E. (2013) Lituanica–3D: the Reliquiae as an object of research. http://www.lituanica–documentica.lt/index.php?id=300 (Lituanica–3D: Relikvijos tampa tyrimo objektu; in Lithuanian).Google Scholar
22. Tismaneanu, V. (1998) Fantasies of Salvation. Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in post-communist Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 25, 36.Google Scholar
23. Sutiniene, I. (2009) The symbols of national history in Lithuanian national imagination: the images of national heroes. Sociologija. Mintis ir veiksmas, 1(24), p. 48 (in Lithuanian).Google Scholar