On September 12, an exhibit No Home to Go to: The Story of Baltic Displaced Persons, 1944– 1952 opened at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.
The exhibit, a joint project of Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago, Vytautas Magnus University Lithuanian Emigration Institute and Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian diaspora communities, is a unique project that presents the exceptional living conditions of the Baltic diaspora in DP camps in Germany.
This year marks 70 years since Baltic people, the political, cultural, and academic elite, trying to avoid Soviet repressions left their countries and settled in DP camps in Germany where they led an active social and cultural life. They established Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian schools, the Baltic University, published newspapers and books, organized theatrical gatherings, concerts and art exhibitions. During the first years of living abroad, the Balts protected and cherished their language and cultural traditions, the most important guarantee of ethnic identity in exile.
The exhibit, available in two languages English and Lithuanian, shows the stages of emigration: fleeing West, living in the DP camps, and further emigration to other countries.
The No Home To Go To exhibit opened earlier at Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago and the Lithuanian Embassy in Washington, DC.
VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute