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My father is appointed Minister of Education

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My parents' civil wedding in Klaipėda
Tomas Venclova Poet
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He was married to my mother, the daughter of a professor. My mother's father taught at the University of Kaunas... Greek and Latin – classical philology – Professor Merkelis Račkauskas, while my mother's mother was from a Polish family but Lithuanised, they had already begun to use Lithuanian. But her parents, her forefathers, were Polish nobles. Her name was Elena Račkauskienė. Well, my father married my mother two years before I was born – in 1935. Because he was a leftist he didn't want to marry in church and thought an entry in the civil register would suffice. But in Lithuania, at that time, there was no other kind of marriage other than a church one, apart from the Klaipėda territory which was autonomous and somewhat different laws were in force. It was possible to have a civil wedding there without going to church. So off they went to the Klaipėda territory and, so to speak, registered their marriage in the civil registry office there and didn't go to church. For my mother this was a special kind of act, so to speak, since she was from a family of believers and she herself was most probably still a believer. Later, that changed for her. She died not that long ago, a couple of years ago at the age of 95 and a believer again. Well, they began to bring me up, so to speak, in the city of Klaipėda for one-and-a-half years. But I don't remember the city of Klaipėda from those times at all. It was largely German-speaking, there were some Lithuanians there, but the majority spoke German. Most of the inhabitants were pro-Nazi and wanted to be united with Hitler's Germany. And Hitler, as you know, in March 1939 annexed Klaipėda to Germany, taking it away from Lithuania. He arrived in the port of Klaipėda in a warship, made a speech from the balcony of the Klaipėda Theatre – even now that balcony is pointed out to tourists – and from that time Klaipėda became German. The Lithuanians from there… the majority of the Lithuanians left – they didn't want to be ruled by Hitler. My parents also left, moving to Kaunas. Well, and my first memories are from Kaunas.

Buvo vedęs... mano mamą, profesoriaus dukterį. Mamos tėvas dėstė Kauno universitete... graikų ir lotynų kalbas – klasikinę filologiją – profesorius Merkelis Račkauskas. O mamos motina buvo iš lenkiškos šeimos, bet sulietuvėjusi, jau perėjusi į lietuvių kalbą. Bet jos tėvai, protėviai buvo lenkų bajorai – Elena Račkauskienė. Na, tėvas vedė mano mamą turbūt dveji metai prieš mano gimimą - trisdešimt penktais metais. Kaip kairysis jisai nenorėjo tuoktis bažnyčioje, o manė kad civilinės būklės įrašo užteks. Bet Lietuvoje tuo metu nebuvo kitokios santuokos išskyrus bažnytinę. Išskyrus vienintelę vietą Klaipėdos krašte kur buvo autonomija ir veikė truputį kitokie įstatymai. Ten buvo galima atlikti civilinę santuoką neinant į bažnyčią. Taigi jie nuvažiavo į Klaipėdos kraštą ten, taip sakant, pasižymėjo savo santuoką civilinės būklės įrašų biure, o į bažnyčią nėjo. Mamai tai buvo tam tikras, taip sakant, ypatingas aktas, kadangi jinai buvo kilusi iš tikinčių šeimos, ir pati dar buvo turbūt tikinti. Vėliau jai tas keitėsi. Mirė ji ne taip seniai, prieš porą metų sulaukusi devyms [sic] penkerių metų amžiaus ir vėl kaip tikintis žmogus. Na, ir jie, taip sakant, mane augino pusantrų metų Klaipėdos mieste. Bet aš Kaipėdos miesto visiškai neatsimenu iš tų laikų. Jis buvo daugiausiai vokiškai kalbantis, buvo ten ir lietuvių, bet dauguma kalbėjo vokiškai. Daugelis gyventojų laikėsi pronacinės pozicijos, norėjo prisijungti prie Hitlerio Vokietijos. Ir Hitleris Klaipėdą, kaip žinoma, trisdešimt devintų metų, kovo mėnesį prijungė prie Vokietijos, atėmė nuo Lietuvos. Atvyko į Klaipėdos uostą kariniu laivu, pasakė kalbą iš Klaipėdos teatro balkono – dar ir dabar tas balkonas rodomas turistams – ir nuo to laiko Klaipėda pasidarė vokiška. Lietuviai iš ten… dauguma lietuvių išvažiavo – nenorėjo likti Hitlerio valdžioje. Taip pat ir mano tėvai persikėlė į Kauną. Nu, ir mano patys pirmieji atsiminimai iš Kauno.

Born in 1937, Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian scholar, poet, author and translator of literature. He was educated at Vilnius University and later at Tartu University. As an active participant in the dissident movement he was deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1977 and had to emigrate. Between 1977 and 1980 he lectured at University of California, Berkeley, where he became friends with the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, who was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the school, as well as the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a full professor at Yale University.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: University of Kaunas, Klaipėda, 3-1939, Germany, Klaipėda Theatre, Kaunas, Merkelis Račkauskas, Elena Račkauskienė, Adolf Hitler

Duration: 3 minutes, 1 second

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012