To commemorate the Day of Mourning and Hope, we, the students of grades 10v and 9c of Kaunas Veršvų Gymnasium, visited the Kaunas railway station. This is a symbolic place where the first mass deportation of Lithuanian residents began on June 14, 1941, in Kaunas.
In the early morning of June 14, the deportations affected Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Belarusians, and Jews. During this deportation, 3,915 people were arrested in Kaunas. After listening to the stories of our teachers and lighting candles of remembrance, we went to a nearby observation deck with a cross in memory of the deportees. Standing in the square and listening to an excerpt from Dalia Grinkevičiūtė’s book “Lithuanians by the Laptev Sea,” we remained silent.
No one spoke – we were all lost in our own thoughts. Looking at the railroad tracks, we could almost see them standing there, holding their bundles, with their mothers and grandparents crying nearby. The memory of the deportees came alive not through dates in textbooks, but through feelings. This whole trip was not only a lesson about the past, but also a reminder of how much we owe to those who suffered. Their hope lives on in us, their stories – in our memory…
Gabrielė Juškaitė, Ūla Jakaitė
