The 7th Baltic Cultural Heritage Abroad conference titled “Eighty Years After 1944: Then and Now” took place in Vilnius from June 26-28th, 2024. Organized by the National Library of Latvia, Not-For-Profit organization Baltic Heritage Network and a whole slew of partner institutions, the meeting was dedicated to the Great Escape of 1944, as well as its effects on global Baltic diaspora communities and on the three Baltic States during the Soviet occupation as well as following their re-independence.
There were 33 presentations over the course of three days and included in the program for two nights was the opportunity for participants to familiarize themselves with the National Library of Latvia’s thematic exhibit and watch the film “The Story of the Baltic University” (Helga Merits, 2015). Professor Egidijus Aleksandravičius from the Vytautas Magnus University delivered the opening presentation, in which he gave an overview of the generation of poets and soldiers within the history of the emigration of Baltic peoples. He considered the Great Escape to be a unique event within world history and therefore, placed even more importance on research of the topic, since the Baltic diaspora isn’t documented in history textbooks. But the topic is being explored by a strong circle of researchers and so the diaspora story should therefore have its well-deserved and recognized place in society. According to him, the progression towards publication of diaspora research in Lithuania is maybe even more developed than in Estonia and Latvia, yet the merging and integration of communities into society has been slower in Lithuania. Although the final wave of emigration also took place in Lithuania in the 1990’s, it wasn’t comparable in a political context to the forced emigration of World War II. The professor also drew attention to the importance of post-war refugee camps in fostering Baltic unity and friendships, but also in the continuation of cooperation in obtaining higher education as well as in the sciences. Of the remaining presentations, 20 explored the Lithuanian diaspora through the post-war experiences of refugees in camps and in the new countries they emigrated to, to the effects of the final wave of emigration at the end of the 20th century. The focus of many papers was the Lithuanian community in the USA, but the activities of Lithuanians who emigrated to Germany and Kazakhstan was also analyzed, as well as the progression of the Lithuanian Jewish community in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century.
In addition, the presenters introduced community initiatives in journalism, architecture, education, faith, and sports. An overview of the Latvian diaspora was given in two presentations, where the focus was on the activities of the Latvian archives and museum in Canada and the University of Latvia’s project regarding researching memoirs of diaspora Latvians. Estonian topics were discussed in nine presentations: the global Estonian community and their archival and museum heritage in Estonian, Canadian and Australian memory institutions, seminars for young researchers and Estonians in England and Holland. It is worth highlighting Hillar Tammela’s introduction of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory’s database and also the book, which is in progress, “Paadipõgenemine” (Escape by Boat), in which the focus is on Estonians who escaped to Sweden. In many ways, Sweden is an appropriate direction for research, since it helps foremost to explore boat refugees, who escaped to Sweden on their own and in small boats, not via ships that were organized thank to the help of the German government. Secondly, it’s important to understand the agreement forged between Sweden and Germany, which gave refugees the right to escape to Sweden. Among those who escaped to Sweden were also those who belonged to so-called escape cooperatives, meaning people who scrounged together the necessary items needed for the boat trip (fuel, alcohol, food, etc.) for many families or in their closest circles of friends and acquaintances, and organized the whole trip by themselves. In parallel, there were also those who were paid off, who were prepared to take people across the sea. Although based on the small amount of documentation on this topic it is estimated that about 6-9% of refugees (approx. 2000 people) perished on the escape trip, Tammela suggests not using this figure since corresponding data doesn’t exist yet and the topic has to be researched further.
Gratifyingly, among the presenters for this year’s conference were Danish journalists and researchers Thomas Svaneborg and Brian Traantoft Rasmussen, who introduced their book “ESCAPE: A Book About
and Overlooked Danish Refugee History.” The Danes have also compiled a database of refugees who escaped to Denmark during the Second World War; people from over 40 different cultural backgrounds are documented there, among them 1010 Estonians and almost 3000 Lithuanians. Interestingly, there
were also active refugee camps in Denmark for Russians, one of the largest was in Copenhagen. Since
most Baltic refugees were not interested in leaving Denmark, their forced deportation was an unpleasant
episode in post-war Danish society. Many refugees who left Denmark set their sights on Australia, but
they weren’t treated in a friendly manner there either due to hostile stances towards immigrants spreading there at the time.
The conference program, the presenters and their presentations with annotations can be viewed on the Baltic Heritage Network website.
Birgit Kibal