Asia Zolotar, a member of Kaunas Jewish Community, who was born in Belarus, shares her memories of childhood in Ukraine, experiences of her family while escaping the war to Kazakhstan and the shelter they‘ve managed to find in Russia. Asia had spent most of her life working as an accountant, found her peace and love […]

Jaq Greenspon was born in 1967, Las Vegas, United States of America. Together with his sister, he grew up in a traditional Jewish family. Jaq says, that the biggest gift of his parents was the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them. Since 2011, Jaq Greenspon is teaching at Vytautas Magnus University and is […]

Janina, who comes from Panevėžys but has lived in Kaunas for more than sixty years, remembers participating in the partisan movement, forging identity documents, her first visits to Kaunas to see her brother imprisoned by the NKVD, the fate of her relatives who were deported to Siberia, and the formation of her young family in […]

Luiza Baranauskienė shares her memories. Luiza has a mixture of Gerogian and Greek roots. She grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she graduated from Russian school, then went to study English in Petegrosk. During her last study days in Russia, she met her future husband and love of her life – kaunasian A. Baranauskas. She […]

“100 First Times” – International Youth Summer Camp, organized by Kaunas 2022 on July 7-14th, 2018. Memory Office program took place in Kulautuva. Program helped the participants to get to know Kulautuva in nontraditional way – through memories of locals. The participants of the camp had a chance to revive these stories, to “accommodate” them […]

This was one of the major projects of the “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” program, which addressed city memory issues. The aim of the Memory Office programme was to awaken the multicultural memory of Kaunas city and towns in its district and remind of its rich history, encourage pride in oneself and the […]

My name is Ya’arit Glezer-Krakinovsky, and I was born in Kaunas in 1947. My parents were also from Kaunas – mother Rivka Discant and father Pinia Krakinovsky. I have one younger brother Moshe. We lived in the very center of Kaunas on Laisves Aleja. It was a 3 room apartment where 3 families lived together. […]

Jonas Arbačiauskas, who actively participated in the resistance movement with his family, recounts his experiences during the post-war years. Interview conducted for the film “Žvangantis miškas” (author: Rūta Vyžintaitė-Lajienė, Rytis Titas), initiated by Kaunas 2022 “History Festival 2020”. — Please introduce yourself briefly. My name is Jonas Arbačiauskas. I was born and raised in the […]

Romualdas Kasmauskas recounts his difficult adolescence during the war years in Lithuania – how, as a teenager, he was arrested simply for childish curiosity and imprisoned in various locations, including Fort IX in Kaunas. Romualdas is a poet and a member of the Lithuanian Rural Writers’ Union. He has published several books of poetry: Sudeginti […]

Salomėja Piliponytė-Užupienė was born in 1928 in the village of Mackūnai, Rumšiškės parish (now Kaišiadorys district), into the family of farmers Bernardas and Ona Piliponys. She grew up with two brothers, Alfonsas and Bronius, and three sisters, Marytė, Aldona, and Valerija. The family lived modestly, working hard on their small plot of land. When World […]

Algirdas Marcinkevičius was born in Kaunas in 1934 and grew up in Petrašiūnai with his brother Aloyzas and sister Aleksandra. Both of Algirdas’ parents, Aleksandras and Kazimiera, were also from there. The Marcinkevičius family lived modestly and were civil servants. His father served in the army in 1922 and in the railway police. On June […]

Jewish Yechezkel Pulerevitch was a poet and author of the Anthem of “the Prisoners of Zion”.Yechezkel was born in 1914 in Joniškis, Lithuania. He graduated from Tarbut Hebrew Gymnasium in Šiauliai, where he received and education in Hebrew language and Zionism. Since 1928 he worked in the Beitar Youth Federation, and from 1932 to 1933 […]

A 1930 Kaunas-born Litvak Roza Gapanavičiūtė Bloch talks about her family’s experience during the Second World War in Kaunas ghetto, and later – in the Stutthof concentration camp. The Holocaust took almost all her loved ones – mother Anna, father Markus, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins… Roza ran across her brother Boris in the empty […]

Litvak Roza Litay shares memories of her family’s life in Kaunas and beyond – the fate of the loved ones during World War II, the Soviet era and later. Roza’s mom of blessed memory, singer with an extraordinary voice, Nechama Lifšicaitė. – – – “My mother grew up in Alytus. As she said, in Lithuania […]

Partizan Stasys Dovydaitis tells a story about All Saints’ day events in 1956 in Kaunas Old Cemetery.   I am in the club of the signatories of February 16th.The brother of my father, professor Pranas Dovydaitis was a signatory of Acto f February 16th. He was a director in “Aušra” gymnasium and later he lectured […]

Konstantin Pakrašov, a diakon in the Kaunas Orthodox Church and a seventh-generation Kaunasian, tells us about his Russian lineage, introduces the Kaunas Orthodox Church Community together with his role in it, and discusses the long history of different cultures and religions getting along in his hometown. – – –“In Lithuania I am a seventh-generation Kaunasian. […]

Lilija, who was born in Raseiniai and spent her early days there shares her memories. During her study years, semi-Jewish and semi-Lithuanian woman moved to Kaunas, where has been creating her life ever since until 2005, when emigrated to Israel. I was always my father’s favorite, I went to his work, and would be his […]

In 1953, when the regime in Lithuania became more liberal, self-expression of local and Jewish people became possible – art collectives and ensembles began to emerge. About 1970, when the emigration wave broke, a large part of them discontinued and artists had emigrated. However, the break was short and already in 1975, new Kaunas Jewish […]

Birutė Landsbergytė, a musicologist, tells about a family house in Kačerginė, about people who lived and spent their summer holiday there. – – – “Aunt Aliutė was ten years older than my father. She told me, after she found out that parents are planning to buy a plot in Kačerginė, she was very disappointed – […]

Doctor Algirdas Baltuškevičius tells about his family, work, acquaintance with his father-in-law professor Tadas Ivanauskas – prominent Lithuanian zoologist and biologist – and his Obelynė farmstead established in Kaunas district. – – – “During the fifth year of my studies, I‘ve met my future wife. My roommate – pharmacist Kazys had a sympathy for Birutė. She […]