Calls for Baltic WWII migrants to share memories

  • 2013-10-14
  • By Rayyan Sabet-Parry

RIGA - Calls have been made for Baltic World War 2 migrants to come forward with their memories. Next year Baltic communities worldwide will mark the 70th year since thousands of refugees, or displaced persons, fled westward from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the last months of World War 2 to escape Soviet occupation of their homelands.

In the decade after the war, the refugees lived in ‘DP Camps’ throughout Germany and Western Europe. Despite limited resources, the Baltic DPs created a rich and varied cultural life in the camps.

They established schools for children and adults; published newspapers and books; maintained religious worship; organized choirs, ensembles, and folk-art guilds; revived scouting and other fraternal activities disrupted by the war.

Now, members of the public are being asked to donate artifacts from the era, including photos and household items. They will contribute to an exhibition entitled ‘The Displaced Persons Project,’ backed by the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago.

An exhibit entitled ‘Displaced to this Place,’ spanning three stages of the Baltic DP experience, will also be on show and will open in Chicago on April 26, 2014 and travel to other cities in North America and the Baltic States.

For more information visit www.displacedpersons.org