Or why is it still blindly believed in Lithuania in the cases, which were fabricated by the KGB?
When the euphoria arose in Lithuania as a result of finding the original of the Act of February 16th by prof.L.Mažylis in Germany and when the discussions on how to return this treasure to Lithuania started, an inhabitant of Vilnius city Zofija Veronika Lipeikienė, who has a double citizenship, i.e. of Lithuania and of the USA, was quietly wiping her tears when flipping pages of the case, which was fabricated against her mother Ona Puskunigienė by the KGB in the post-war period. The tears of pain – because the lie that once was fabricated by the KGB is still being spread in independent Lithuania. Now this pain becomes more acute – because a mace of that time struck the family, which suffered a lot for independence of Lithuania and has done a lot in that front.
You really do not know that …
Today You can find a document, which is very important and significant for Lithuania, on the official website of the Seymas of the Republic of Lithuania – the Declaration of the USA State’s department of the 23rd of July of the year 1940 on non-recognition of the annexation of the Baltic States. It was signed by the USA State’s secretary Benjamin Sumer Welles. The 70th anniversary of the Declaration of the USA State’s department on non-recognition of the annexation of the Baltic States was officially commemorated in Lithuania on the 23rd of July of the year 2010.
But today, probably, few people in Lithuania know that Zosė Kundrotaitė, who was a sister of Veronika Lipeikienė’s mother by name Ona (the one, against whom the KGB fabricated the case so as to prevent her from leaving for America and who, as the enemy of the soviet state, was exiled to prison for 25 years to the far land of Komi.) was the initiator of this Declaration of the USA State’s department.
A photo: Veronika’s aunt Zosė Kundrotaitė – Gold with her husband Meyer Gold donate a charity to the first Israel President D.Ben Gurion in the year 1948.
Veronika Lipeikienė’s aunt Zosė Kundrotaitėar ried Meyer Gold, who was one of the owners of the factory “Ford”, in the USA and became the chairperson of the influential Jewish women’s organization “B’nai B’rith Women District No.6”, which had 8 American and 6 Canadian states on its territory.
A photo: Meyer Gold congratulates his wife Zosė Kundrotaitė-Gold on the occasion of her election for the position of the chairperson of the USA and Canadian Jewish women’s organization.
Zosė Kundrotaitė – Gold closely communicated with the then USA President F. Roosevelt’s wife Mrs. Roosevelt and namely the friendship of the Gold’s family with the then USA President F. Roosevelt’s family led to the Declaration of the USA State’s department of the 23rd of July of the year 1940 on non-recognition of the annexation of the Baltic States.
There is a historical photo in Veronika Lipeikienė’s archive: Mrs. Zosė Kondrotaitė – Gold, USA President F. Roosevelt’s wife Mrs. Roosevelt and USA State’s secretary Mr. Benjamin Sumer Welles after signing the Declaration of the USA State’s department on non-recognition of the annexation of the Baltic States.
One family’s history: historical injustice
In fact, the drama of life of Mrs.Veronika Lipeikienė’s family is worth of a movie – a family had been living, actually, two different lives at the same time (one – in Lithuania, the other one – in America) and, as a matter of fact, had been differently fighting for independence of Lithuania (one family member – in the soviet prison, whereas the other one – in the USA President F. Roosevelt’s environment). Several storylines intertwined in the “movie” of this family’s life – one sister lives in the occupied Lithuania, whereas the other one – in the USA, and the action takes place in the diametrically opposite spaces: America, the smetonian Lithuania, the soviet occupation, the German occupation, independent Lithuania. This is what Mrs.Veronika told us:
“My father was a citizen of the USA. He was born and lived in America. He arrived to Lithuania in the year 1932, got acquainted with my mother and married her. As my father was a citizen of the USA, he had a permit to reside in Lithuania for three years. He had to leave for America after three years, to extend his visa and then again he could reside here for three years.
A year passed since my parents’ marriage and in the year 1933 my brother Benediktas was born. As the term of the permit for my father to reside in Lithuania expired, he departed, extended his visa, returned and then my second brother Leonas was born in the year 1935. Afterwards my father departed again, he extended his visa, returned and my mother said: “I want to have a daughter”. Thus, they gave birth to me in the year 1937.
I was only half a year old, when suddenly my father got an invitation to return to America though he was neither guilty before the laws of Lithuania, nor the term of his visa had expired. It was in the year 1938. My father did not return for some time, but he was sent from Lithuania under the supervision of the police. My mother could not go to America together with him because she did not have the so-called ship-cards; therefore, she together with us – children – stayed in Lithuania.
After having returned to America, my father sent all the necessary documents to my mother; the documents had to be prepared, so that we could depart for America. I was already older at that time, I was one and a half years old. However, my mother was short of time to leave, the events in Poland started, the war began. So, the historical separation of the family occurred.
At that time my mother with us – children – lived in the village of Kivyliai, she had been cultivating father’s land. However, my mother, seeing that she was not allowed to go to America, returned to Papilė to her parents because it was difficult for her alone to live with three children.
My grandfather had been living in America since the year 1903. He invited my grandmother there, married her and worked as a coalman in the coal mine. However, when he found out that Lithuania was already independent – the Act of Independence of February 16th was declared in the year 1918 – he began to load his suitcases to Lithuania. He returned in the year 1921.
My mother was 10 years old, whereas my mother’s sister Zosė was 12 years old at that time. Zosė had been studying in the Viekšniai Gymnasium; however, she failed to adapt herself there and returned to America. My grandmother’s brother together with his family lived there. Thus, my mother’s sister settled down there.
As it was firmly promised that I shall be her goddaughter – I stayed non-baptized for 3 years – my mother was waiting for her sister to come to Lithuania. But the historic events arranged everything in their own way…
My mother’s sister married a very rich Jew in America and became the president of the American and Canadian Jewish women’s organization.
She had been closely communicating with the USA President F. Roosevelt’s family at that time. When the occupation of Lithuania occurred on the 15th of June of the year 1940, already in July the Secretary of the USA State’s department Sumer Welles signed the Declaration stating that the occupation of Lithuania will never be recognized.
The war started on the 21st-22nd of June of the year 1941. Germans appeared in Papilė on the 27th-29th of June of the year 1941…”
“I was at my grandfather’ on that day…”
“Until then the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) was located in Papilė; just before the appearance of Germans it arrested and shot four residents of our parish. Our closest neighbour was among them. To tell the truth, he survived: the bullet that was fired by the NKVDist passed through his jaw and ear; he lay for two days in the blood between the corpses. Then the Germans came and delivered our neighbour to Mažeikiai to be operated. After having recovered, he departed from Lithuania. He urged my grandfather and my mother to join him because, as he said: “Russians will come back”. But my mother replied: “Where shall I go with three small kids…”, whereas my grandfather said: “I haven’t offended anyone, I am a farmer, I cultivate my father’s land, I shall not go anywhere. Come what may”. And they did not go anywhere from Lithuania.
Russian soldiers still were around when Germans appeared in our land on the 27th-28th of June. There was a gunfight. The Russian soldiers raised a white flag and surrendered.
There were more than one hundred of them. The German officers ordered them to lay down all their arms – afterwards they will take them to the camp and decide what to do. All the captives laid down their arms. But…
The political instructor of those red captives laid down his arms, but kept a dagger for himself. That political instructor stabbed the German officer when the Germans were taking the captives to the camp. And then the Germans got furious…
They, certainly, would not have shot them, would send to work – as the people were talking – but when their officer was stabbed, it was decided to shoot all of them because who knows what kind of resistance can be expected from them. And on the 29th of June the Germans led all those captives through the town of Papilė to shoot them…
Those captives were young, worn-out, hadn’t eaten for several days, some of them were wounded. And when they were led through that town, the people were very sorry for them, despite the fact that they were invaders, because everyone understood where they were lead…
On that day the Germans posted the guards everywhere and none of the inhabitants was allowed to appear on the street. They led the captives through the whole town and brought them to the ending farmstead, where my grandparents lived. They drove the captives into my grandparents’ yard. Apparently, the German intelligence officers knew the territory, i.e. that there were five or six huge pits behind my grandparents’ yard; the pits remained since the First World War. They decided to shoot those captives near those pits.
At that time my mother lived in the village of Augustaičiai, whereas my grandfather – in the distance of a couple of kilometres, in Papilė.
On that day my mother together with my grandmother were in the church. My grandmother was very religious and sensitive. When she saw the captives, who were driven, she together with the other femmes closed up in the church and stayed there until the evening, until it became dark. My mother returned to the village of Augustaičiai along the other road because my brothers were left there.
I was four years old at that time and I was at my grandfather’s – my mother did not even step into the yard.
The Germans asked my grandfather for a spade and then asked him to draw some water from the well – because such was the request of some Russian captives before death – they were very thirsty. My grandfather poured some water into their metal kettles. The Germans started to line the captives up – each row of five people – whereas I and my grandfather were driven into the premises.
Until now I remember the picture how they were driven – they were standing along the fence, along the young apple trees… I remember how they were, that someone was ransacked…and afterwards the location of the pits was very precisely fixed, i.e. the place, where they were shot.
The surrounding neighbours were laid on the ground and were staying under the Germans’ supervision – so that they would not even see through the window what was going on in that yard.
And they were shot… The exact number of the captives, who were shot, is unknown: as it is stated in the case against my grandfather – more than 100, in the case against my mother – 126, in the book “Mass Murder in Lithuania” – 124.
The Germans with the front went further after that shooting, having left the police officers for handling the situation.
The bodies of the Russian captives began to decompose and flies started to gather in the place, where the captives were shot…Because after five captives were shot, the other five captives were covering them with earth, then the other ones were shot, again the other five captives were covering them with earth; the Germans themselves covered the last five captives with earth.
Until now I remember that picture: their boots, the bodies up to the waist not covered with earth, the earth on their backs – because they were falling down with their face to those pits.
My grandfather and neighbours began to talk that the epidemic could emerge – that it was necessary to rebury them. And the then chief of the town said that the farmers from three villages must organize the reburial of the remains.
They dug a large pit somewhere in the forest, which is called Girelė, within the distance of 1,5 kilometres from the location (I also remember where and how it looked like – as my father was absent, so our grandfather never used to leave us – children – anywhere and used to take us together with him) and reburied all of them there.
They were carefully putting those bodies into the carts and were carrying them… They buried them carefully. They buried them rather deeply. All the captives, who were shot, were buried in one place (if ever someone carries out the exploration, etc.).
The German occupation lasted until the year 1945. Our town was bombed, my grandfather’s house was burnt down. My grandfather moved to the village of Augustaičiai to live together with my mother.
The soviets, who returned, arrested my grandfather on the 19th of March of the year 1945: they wanted to convict him because he, ostensibly, drove the captives to the place of shooting.
But my grandfather did not drive them. And there was not a single neighbour, who would say that he saw something like that. There was only one letter that was fabricated by one woman, whose husband was a policeman – that she, ostensibly, saw how my grandfather was driving the captives.
However, the soviets did not have anything else, except for that letter; thus, they were forcing my grandfather to confess. According to the official documents, my grandfather was under arrest for three months, but, actually, he was kept in the Šiauliai jail for a year. As my grandfather told me, there were 37-38 men in one prison cell – You know, the post-war period, one blink was enough, i.e. that You are not satisfied with the soviet power, and that was all – to prison. However, finally they let my grandfather go.
At that time by brother began to cough, he visited the doctor in Šiauliai. The doctor examined him, X-rayed his lungs and said: “There is no tuberculosis, but there are blackish spots. If You could get Streptomycin…It was just discovered in America. Is Your father in America? Ask him to send it”.
Thus, we wrote a letter to our father, so that he would send Streptomycin. Our father, having found out that there was a possibility to help us to survive, would send Streptomycin, whereas the doctor used to pay us for it.
So, we lived like that at that time, i.e. expecting that we shall join our father.
… When collective farms were creating, my mother did not have any land in her own name; therefore, she was not accepted to the collective farm (only my grandfather was accepted because he had the land that was inherited by his father). But my mother was industrious and she built a house in Papilė in the year 1948. When a more stable soviet power had established itself, a judge, a prosecutor and a lawyer were appointed to work in our town. They did not have any place to reside, whereas there were three rooms in our house. Thus, all of them settled down in our house.
We did not know at that time that the soviet security had been following us: our father lived in America, who knew where my mother’ sister lived, whereas there was a cold war between America and the Soviet Union… Moreover, we used to get parcels from our father once per month – our father had been sending flour, groats, sugar, cocoa. This, after all, was a terrible crime.
When my mother received the first invitation to depart for America, the security guards opened the tracking case against her – they were looking for the pretext, so as not to let us go to America. They gave the instruction to the post office to follow us and to hand over all our letters to the security”.
“Top secret”
From the tracking case (“Top secret”) against Veronika Lipeikienė’s mother Ona Puskunigienė:
“A camp for the captives was arranged in the yard of her father’s house. Before the moment of the shooting Puskunigienė took away the soldiers’ documents and money, tore off their distinguishing marks.
Her husband resides in America, she maintains relations with him by correspondence, she gets parcels from him.
In the year 1946 she addressed the American representative office in Moscow with her letter, asking for the permission to leave for America.
Recently Puskunigienė conducts the antisoviet agitation among the population, substantiates the inevitable collapse of the soviet power in Lithuania as a result of the war between America and the Soviet Union.
The essence of the case: A letter, which was addressed to O.Puskunigienė, was received from the USA Embassy in Moscow. The content of the letter: The Diplomatic Mission is prepared to accept Your application by mail on granting the American (US) citizenship. For that purpose, we ask You to fill in form No.176 and to return it together with Your 4 photos to the Diplomatic mission”.
Besides, there was a scheme (“Hunting”) in the case, i.e. how to accuse Ona Puskunigienė: Russian soldiers-captives, priest Cirtautas, Jogėla (party activist), Bronė Špokienė.
V.Lipeikienė explained: “The latter was my mother’s needlewoman, who used to sew blouses and dresses for my mother. Quasi my mother told Špokienė: “Do not build a larger house now because Americans will come, will set us free and You can build it afterwards, otherwise the war between America and the Soviet Union will start and again Your house will be burnt down”.
However, the security could not do anything to my mother for a while because that was only noise, but there were no facts. And then they found a Lithuanian residing in Latvia, who was a communist. The latter said that he, quasi, saw that my mother “participated at the moment when the Russian captives were shot, she was tearing off their symbolic marks, was turning their pockets inside out and was depriving them of their precious things”.
On the 04th of September of the year 1951 my mother was arrested and in December the Šiauliai judge Antanas Daunys, who originated from the location, which was within some 4-5 kilometres from our house, sentenced her to 25 years’ imprisonment and 5 years without the right to return to Lithuania. My mother’s all the property and house were confiscated and my mother was exiled to Komi. I was thirteen years old at that time”.
In grim obscurity
“My grandfather died in the year 1952 – he could not bear the injustice against my mother. So, my mother – in Komi, my grandfather died, we – three children – remaining and our grandma…
One day the school principal invited me and said: “Children, if you do not run away tonight, you will be driven away to Russia”. And he asked us to take an oath that we shall not tell anyone that he warned us because he would be driven away there as well.
At that time my elder brother was in Kishinev together with sportsmen, I was at home together with my younger brother, whereas our grandma was in the village. We contacted our grandma. We must run away. But where to run away? No acquaintances, absolutely nothing. And then I remembered that, when my mother was operated because of her appendicitis in Mažeikiai, a woman, who was lying next to her in the ward, said: “When You need, come to us to Mažeikiai”. I knew where she lived and I said: “Let’s run away to this woman”. And at night we, as we stand, having left everything at home, left for Mažeikiai.
When we arrived to that woman at night, I knocked on the window of her house. She got up and went to see who was there. I said that we arrived because we are in danger of being driven away. She clapped her hands and gasped: “Oh, Jesus-Jesus, what am I to do now? If they find out that You are with me, all of us will be driven away!” She told us to go to the outdoor kitchen: “If someone comes in the morning, I shall say that I do not know anything who was passing by at night and came in”. We spent several days with that woman.
My grandma was very religious and pious. Having visited the priest in the church, she found the shelter for us. There was a nun Sofija Šviesaitė in Mažeikiai; she had been living together with her parents and half of the house was vacant. That nun talked to her parents and we were accepted. Those were very wonderful people.
When my brother returned from Kishinev, he did not find anybody at home. He visited the school. The school principal invited him and said in the presence of the teachers: “Where have You been?” “Principal, I was with the sportsmen in Kishinev”. “So, how do You miss the lessons? Why Your sister and brother are absent from school? Where are they?” – he shouted at him in the presence of all.
However, the principal had to behave like that – after all, he could not give himself out, i.e. that it was he, who saved us from being driven away.
After visiting the school, my brother met a driver, who delivered us to Mažeikiai: “Benas, you just run away from here. I have already delivered Veronika with Leonas and grandmother to Mažeikiai because all of You will be driven away to Russia”. Thus, my elder brother joined us.
Our grandma had been raising us until our mother returned…
One day the teacher said: “Children, go, change Your clothes and return to school; there will be a school line”. I, by the way, always used to wear collars and cuffs that were sent to me by my mother from prison. When we were lined up in the hall and told that Stalin died, you cannot even imagine how happy I was at that moment – maybe, I’ll see my mother. Apparently, instead of weeping, I was very mobile from that joy; thus, the teacher came up to me and tapped me on my shoulder: “Veronika, you look very joyful. Please, concentrate”. She knew where my mother was…She was an excellent teacher.
In general, people from Mažeikiai and Žemaitija have a strong backbone and are die-hard. It was low and shameful for us to study the Russian language. And we did not lay our efforts. Afterwards, when we understood that we cannot do without it, we had to work hard, so as to learn it…The patriotic feeling was high”.
Historical meeting
“I graduated from school in the year 1955; my mother was still absent. One of my brothers was in the army, the other brother studied in Vilnius. I together with my friend, who also originated from Papilė, decided to study biology. I passed my exams well. But it was stated in my autobiography that my father is in America, whereas my mother – in prison. And what – I was not accepted…
I had been independently studying for the whole year. I thought that still I shall enter any higher school. My mother returned in May of the year 1956. I told her: “Mother, I shall study medicine”, whereas she replied: “Well, what have you planned, child? No acquaintances, no money… How will You enter the higher school?”. I told her that I shall try.
I arrived to the Kaunas Institute of Medicine, so as to submit the documents. The secretary told me: “You must get a permission from the Minister of Health stating that he does not object that You will take exams”.
It seemed that there was no hope. But I decided to go to Vilnius and visit the Minister Dirsė – I needed to know finally that really there was no hope. The Minister only asked me: “Wouldn‘t you cause harm to the soviet power after graduating from medicine?” I said: “No, I shall really work sincerely”. I was not allowed to study therapy, but to study stomatology – yes. I have passed the exams and graduated…
But I had been followed so strictly that I was not allowed to remain in Kaunas at the graduation party: I was awarded a diploma on the 29th of June, whereas I had to start working in Kvėdarna already on the 01st of July – though those, who graduated with high marks, were allowed to choose the location, where they would like to work.
My mother used to visit me in Kvėdarna because she was endlessly persecuted.
And then…We received the news that my mother’s sister arrives with the delegation from America to Moscow and that she and her husband are allowed to meet with my mother and grandmother in Vilnius.
A photo: The historical meeting in the year 1961. From the left: Veronika’s aunt Zosė Kundrotaitė-Gold, Veronika’s grandmother and Veronika’s mother Ona Puskunigienė
We all came to Vilnius. My aunt did not forget that she was by godmother. My uncle, i.e. her husband, said: “Now, Veronika, we all together with our delegation shall go to Moscow”. And we together with them went to Moscow.
A photo: The year 1961. Veronika together with her uncle Meyer Gold, who arrived to Moscow together with the delegation of the USA politicians and businessmen, so as to meet with the secretary of the CC of the USSR N.Khrushchev and to solve the issues on the threat of the Cuban war.
There was the Cuban crisis at that time and N.Khrushchev, without five minutes, had declared the nuclear war. Thus, they were going to N.Khrushchev, so as to cool his mind.
There was one USA senator in that delegation, who liked me very much, and he entreated Khrushchev to allow me to visit America. But I refused to go to America together with that delegation. I said that I will not go there without my mother. I was told to go there now, whereas my mother, ostensibly, will be allowed to go later. But I knew the KGB servants’ lie, i.e. that if I depart, I will never see my mother, who was so much overdriven, who sacrificed most of her life for her children…
Thus, I remained in Lithuania and we had been maintaining our correspondence with that senator for about a year. However, not all his letters used to reach me, whereas he did not receive all my letters…
Once, after our return from Moscow, when not more than two weeks passed, I did not find my mother when I returned home (the hospital provided me with a room; an apartment could not be allocated for the homeland traitors). I started to ask whether someone, maybe, saw my mother. The person, who was on duty in the hospital, said: “Three KGB servants came and brought her out”. Where, who, why – I did not know anything. I received a press cutting from the Akmenė newspaper “Vienybė” (Unity) after some time – that “a well-trained homeland traitor, a speculator got what she deserved – she even fainted during the trial, she was sentenced for parasitism and deported to Pasvalys district “…
Behold, it was such a persecution! It was a retribution that was inflicted on my mother for the fact that her sister had been fighting in America for independence of Lithuania and was engaged in political activities… So, what does “fights for independence of Lithuania” mean? It means that You fight against the soviets, do not recognize the occupation. Hence, you are a bitter enemy. And how to take revenge on you? Only via your relatives – via your sister and her children…
That’s the story of our life. My father died in the year 1971 in America, my mother died in the year 1976 in Lithuania.
I visited America in the year 1990, when independence was already proclaimed in Lithuania – so as to find the grave of my father…” – that’s how Veronika Lipeikienė, wiping her tears, tells in a trembling voice about her past life.
The mission is impossible, or who cares about the slandered Lithuanians?
Having found the grave of her father in America, Veronika Lipeikienė says that she has one more mission in her life – to restore historical justice.
Veronika Lipeikienė says: “All the same, I want that event in Papilė to be explored and the questions – who was shooting, where the shooting took place, who was shot and how many people were shot – to be answered, so that it would be recognized that our family was wrongly accused, had been persecuted and terrorized for so many years – that my mother suffered for this reason and was not allowed to depart for America. That, when shooting the Russian captives, not a single Lithuanian participated in the massacre, because the invaders were shooting the other invaders”.
Searching for historical justice and seeking for proving the fraud of the case that was fabricated against her mother, she appealed to the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl already in the year 1992, but she received only the reply from the German embassy stating that women and children were not involved in the hostilities.
Time and again she appealed also to the Russian leadership, but only 10 years ago she received the only reply: that her application was transferred for the investigation to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. V.Lipeikienė does not have any information about how that investigation ended or whether, in general, the issue was investigated.
Moreover, V.Lipeikienė appealed to the USA leadership for the legal aid when investigating the shooting of the Russian captives on the 29th of June of the year 1941 in Papilė. But in the year 2005 a congressman of the Lithuanian origin, a Republican J.Šimkus, who was visited by Veronika Lipeikienė in his office, said that first of all she must address the President of Lithuania on this issue. Valdas Adamkus served as the President of Lithuania at that time.
Veronika Lipeikienė says: “When I returned from America, I behaved as I was told – I wrote an application to the President Valdas Adamkus. He read my application, appreciated it and instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the event.
The investigation started. A prosecutor Valentukevičius was in charge of it. Also the other institutions were engaged in the investigation: we, all three children, were summoned to the State Security Department, we were interrogated on what kind of the fact it was, how our mother was convicted…
However, when the investigation of that fact started, the Presidents have changed: Dalia Grybauskaitė becomes the President instead of Valdas Adamkus. I confess that I sincerely believed that this President will be fair for all, that historical justice will be restored: I had been actively gathering signatures, I had been collaborating with her election team. But… A year passed, one more year passed, I had been applying to various institutions, but nobody dealt with that historical issue. Finally, I heard that the Akmenė prosecutor Darius Valys was appointed for the position of the Prosecutor General. Then the news reached me: the investigation was suspended or completely terminated… thought this event does not have the limitation period because it is a war crime, crime against humanity.
Whereas I wanted the circumstances of the shooting of the captives in Akmenė region, in Papilė, to be investigated, the shadow, which was cast on the Lithuanian nation by the KGB, to be removed, i.e. that not a single Lithuanian participated in that shooting”.
Yes, a woman, one woman fights for the whole Lithuanian nation since the very beginning of independence – so that Lithuanians, as the nation, would not be desecrated by the false data that are contained in the case, which was fabricated by the KGB during the Stalin times. However, all her efforts, as if, bump up against the wall, against the invincible wall. As if, it were the same KGB, which has transformed, or, as if, it were a chameleon, which has repainted and adapted itself to independence of Lithuania, would govern – only this time by invisible hand. Because…
The book “Papilė” (the IInd and the IIIrd parts) that is attributed to the series “Valsčiai” (Counties) was published due to V.Lipeikienė’s anxiety and search for historical justice, after her appeal to the President Valdas Adamkus and after the Prosecutor General’s Office started the investigation of the event.
“It is written in the first part that my mother is a political prisoner, but nothing is written about what for and how she was convicted. As regards the second part, my mother is already among the people, who collaborated with Germans: there are the extracts from the criminal case against my mother in the margins of the book…
Since this is not true, we together with the deceased barrister K. Čilinskas started a trial against the publishers. The court hearing was held on the 25th of January of the year 2010, whereas shortly a book fair took place, where the publisher was talking to our President – she was very pleased with that book… Was she pleased with the lie that was spread out?
The court marathon was long: as the court of the first instance, so the court of the second instance did not see anything wrong in the circumstance that the historical scientific book was based not on the facts, but on the case that was fabricated by the KGB. And only the Supreme Court stopped that circle of injustice – the historian was asked to produce the evidence, i.e. what was the basis for his statements because the case, which was fabricated by the KGB, cannot serve as the basis. The second round of the courts “carousel” started and the final verdict was as follows: the book contains the mismatch of facts, there wasn’t any feast in my grandfather’s yard after the shooting of the captives, my mother even wasn’t in that yard…
But there were the attempts prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to slander the Lithuanians – to accuse, i.e. it is we, who are guiltiest: that we were driving the Russian captives, tearing off their symbolic marks, robbing valuables…The publisher was obliged to apologize publicly. However, that refutation was published together with comments. Thus, our family was once again slandered.
Therefore, I believe that we do not have the right to ask Germans to donate the Act of February 16th to us. Because we vilified them in the book, i.e. that they robbed the Russian captives before shooting them. After all, it is the largest desecration. And that was not the case. What valuables could the Germans take away, if the captives had only their footcloths and metal kettles?
Therefore, in my opinion, we do not have the right to ask for the original of the Act of February 16th from Germany until D.Grybauskaitė is our President, who is fond of this lie,” – Veronika Lipeikienė expresses her opinion.
And finally she draws attention to the strange coincidences of surnames in this story: Mitrofanovas, who is the current major of Akmenė region, and the KGB captain Mitrofanovas – the main person, who fabricated the case against Ona Puskunigienė, i.e. against Veronika Lipeikienė’s mother; Antanas Daunys – the judge, who sentenced Ona Puskunigienė for 25 years of imprisonment for “treachery of the Motherland”. Antanas Daunys’ recollections are published in the book “Papilė”, in which the information about V.Lipeikienė’s grandfather and mother, as the Supreme Court stated, does not correspond to reality.
HOT comment, 4-18 August, 2017
