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Women who survived four eras, survived the Holocaust, the Soviet era, and did not lose faith in goodness and humanity. I. Veisaitė, theatologist, Germanist, creator and president of the Open Lithuania Foundation – in the show “Netobulos”.
He rejoiced in the present moment, though he also saw his weaknesses.
Speaking about the present, this time, I. Veisaitė recalled the times of the Sąjūdis. “A great miracle happened, nobody expected us to achieve Independence. The move was a true miracle. We don’t walk, we fly to the ground. I remember the first Sąjūdis congress that took place in 1988, it was an incredible feeling! For the first time, he was able to express what he feels and what he thinks about. I am very optimistic and happy with that moment, although I see its weaknesses, “he said during the guest program.
Noting that the economic and financial situation in Lithuania is as good as ever, I. Veisaitė declined to agree. “The economic situation does not need to close our eyes, we have a lot of poverty. Especially for older people. There is even exclusion, I would say very painful for us. Since retirees live, I don’t wish that on anyone. It seems to me that we are moving forward, we have achieved a lot, President Dalia Grybauskaitė said that we have solved the problems of freedom and economy, but still, we have not solved them completely. Even more so in the case of educational issues. There is still something to do in Lithuania ”, I. Veisaitė took the situation seriously.
The theatrologist said she noticed a lot of selfishness: “There was a recent conversation at the Mo Museum about photography. When Antanas Sutkus (who is one of my favorite photographers in the world) asked him what he would say to young people, what he wanted people to do, he replied that he wanted love and idealism. With us everything is measured too much in money. We have forgotten that the most important thing is a person’s conscience, love for a loved one. There are things like this forgotten … It is very dangerous. “
I. Veisaitė was a former pedagogue and taught German studies for four decades. Once he had even alluded to the fact that teaching required “a lot of heart”, he perceived it as a kind of mission. Speaking of the current educational system, the public figure quoted the famous Russian satirist Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, who has said that poverty is not some kind of sin, but the biggest pig.
“This is true. When a person cannot live with dignity, when he cannot buy a book, he cannot afford to go to the theater, especially a teacher … I cannot condemn him for talking about money. I do not understand how we could have such salaries that a university professor receives four hundred five hundred euros a month: humiliation, underestimation. It is an enormous job, a responsibility, a mission “, he could not reconcile and added that it is not the teachers who are to blame for this situation, but the economists and budget distributors. However, according to I. Veisaitė, you cannot blame one side. You must take responsibility for yourself. Being free means being responsible.
According to I. Veisaitė, there are both older and younger teachers in the country who feel their mission. “<...> People must be able to live with dignity. Also, it seems to me that we inherited from the Soviet system the desire to take care of everything, to tell everyone what to do. Teachers are instructed: what they can and cannot do, they must be held accountable. There is mistrust in teachers. I am no longer in his shoes, but I feel it. I not only taught German studies, but also history of Western European literature, I also had a theater course, which was interesting: many creative people came out, such as Vytautas Toleikis, Audra Žukaitytė, Marius Mikalajūnas ”, I. Veisaitė named his former students.
Conscience is our God
According to I. Veisaitė, Europe today is in great danger due to the lack of values:
It takes a strong spine to overcome the difficulties of life. The theatrologist considered that he, like many other qualities, was probably brought by his parents. “From my second mother Stefania Ladygienė, whom I loved immensely. From that Holocaust, gulag experience. Seems to me, God first, to be honest. You have to live according to your conscience. <...> A person can create hell for himself, if he has a conscience. Regret comes, you can’t fix anything, it’s extremely hard, suffering. But there are people who have no conscience. Consciousness is our God. The commandments of the Christian faith that you must love your parents, do not kill, love your neighbor, even the enemy, and be able to forgive are extremely important. If you don’t have these values in yourself, they are fed by life itself, the experience of life ”, I. Veisaitė taught him his values approach.
The theatrologist has shared in the press one of the father’s lessons in childhood that revealed the spirit of the 1938 era. Irena went on a trip to Europe with her father. The father took it to Unter den Linden, the main street in Berlin, planted it on a yellow bench that Jews were to sit on, and explained what it was through the benches. The girl’s father at that time asked: How do you feel isolated from society?
“It just came to our knowledge then. It was an adventure for me, but I remember well what my father told me to keep in mind. As we were Lithuanian citizens, we could sit on everyone, but German Jews could only sit on yellow benches. I wanted to. jump to another bench. I remembered this episode, then it became more and more evident to me. I am very grateful to my father. At the age of ten, I did not understand it, and then it became very important. ”I. Veisaitė kept the words of his father in his memory to this day.
It was painful
She assured him that she had never accepted this separation. “I remember that during the Nazi occupation, when my life was in danger, I was thinking about how to survive and tell the world what happened. I didn’t understand anything about what happened here. I had an episode, it’s hard to tell … When I got to the house of my second mother, S. Ladygiene, she kissed all the children with a cross. And he laid me down, approached me, put me on the cross and kissed me. Then I started crying … because no one kissed me for a long time. Everyone hated Jews so much, so I thought there was something disgusting about me that was different from everyone else. It was painful ”, I. Veisaitė immersed himself in painful experiences.
The somewhat silent socialist added, baptized because Jesus loves suffering, mistreatment and not rich people. “I have believed that Christ loves me more than those who live safely. During the Holocaust, I met extraordinary personalities, I understood what it means to be a virtuous and profound person. I have to say that I never survived because I am different. I am, like everyone else, easily reconciled in Lithuania, both Lithuanian and Jewish. Why? Since I live in the Lithuanian culture, I speak Lithuanian, my daughter speaks Lithuanian, ”he said.
The theatrologist admitted that she even wanted to study Lithuanian language and literature, but had to leave Vilnius because security was after her. “All kinds of experiences. I survived the Holocaust, the gulag; my beloved mother Stefania entered the gulag, I lost her too. It scattered the whole family. I have no objection: you could add a third identity to me: I am European. I especially felt that when I went to America, where it is as if the same English is spoken, but there is a completely different psychology, a different architecture, a different way of life for people. I felt deeply that she was European ”, assured I. Veisaitė.
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