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Irena Spakauskiene. 12 år gammel deporteret til Sibirien • Irena Spakauskiene. 12 years old deported to Siberia • Irena Spakauskiene. 12-Jährige nach Sibirien deportiert
Akrylfarve, blyant, slettelak, pastelfarve. Papir, pap, malerlærred, sækkelærred, garn.
Irena Saulute Spakauskiene fra Litauen (født 1928) var 12 år gammel da hun med sin mor og bror blev deporteret til det koldeste sted I Sibirien. Familien blev deporteret fordi faderen havde tjent i den litauiske hær i selvstændighedsperioden før den sovjetiske besættelse i 1940. Tidligere litauiske soldater blev automatisk betegnet som ”fjender af staten”.
I sommeren 1941 fandt arrestationer og massedeportationer sted i alle baltiske lande. Deportationerne involverede 18.000 litauere. Årsagen til disse deportationer var simpelthen at bruge folket som slavearbejdere. De deporterede mennesker fik personlig skriftlig besked om, at de blev sendt “til fjerntliggende regioner i Sibirien for resten af dit liv”.
Irenas familie blev brutalt arresteret en nat af KGB. De blev bragt til den nærmeste jernbanestation. Faderen blev sendt til en GULAG-lejr, hvor han blev henrettet. Den øvrige familie – Irena, bror og mor – blev sendt på en månedslang umenneskelig togrejse i kreaturvogn til det nordlige Sibirien, til Trofimovk-øen, det koldeste sted i Sibirien. Det var nord for polarcirklen med permafrost og temperaturer ned til minus 50 grader. Livet bestod af hårdt arbejde, konstant sult, sygdom og død – og alle frøs konstant. Forholdene gik især ud over gamle og børn. Unge over 10 år skulle dagligt arbejde 12 timer om vinteren og 14 timer om sommeren. Det første år døde en tredjedel af de deporterede.
Man boede i såkaldte ”yurts”, et primitivt hus bygget af tørv og med ét stort rum. Vinduerne bestod af is-stykker og temperaturerne nåede aldrig over frysepunktet. Irena husker, at hun ofte vågnede op med håret frosset fast til sengen. I 1946 døde Irenas mor af sult, 44 år gammel. Samme år lykkedes det en litauisk hemmelig ekspedition at bringe børn tilbage til Litauen, hvor de levede i skjul. Efter Sovjetunionens kollaps deltog Irena i en ekspedition med henblik på at finde jordiske rester af deporterede litauere og genbegrave dem i hjemlandet. Hun fandt sin mors gravsted. Med langvarigt og stort besvær blev kisten, lavet af fiskekasser, gravet op af den frosne jord. Moderens legeme var bevaret pga. permafrosten. Det samme var – med Irenas ord – ”hendes smukke hvide hår”.
Irena blev gift i 1960 og fik to børn. Hun fik en medicinsk uddannelse og arbejdede samtidig som turistguide. Bl.a. har hun fortalt om sin familiehistorie ved en rekonstrueret yurt i Litauens nationale frilandsmuseum i Rumsiskes.
Acrylic paint, pencil, eraser vanish, pastel paint. Paper, cardboard, canvas, burlap, yarn.
Irena Saulute Spakauskiene from Lithuania (born 1928) was 12 years old when she was deported with her mother and brother to the coldest place in Siberia. The family was deported because the father had served in the Lithuanian army during the period of independence before the Soviet occupation in 1940. Former Lithuanian soldiers were automatically designated as “enemies of the state”. In the summer of 1941, arrests and mass deportations took place in all Baltic countries. The deportations involved 18,000 Lithuanians. The reason for these deportations was simply to use the people as slave laborers. The deported people were given personal written notice that they were being sent “to remote regions of Siberia for the rest of your life”. Irena’s family was brutally arrested one night by the KGB. They were taken to the nearest railway station. The father was sent to a GULAG camp, where he was executed. The rest of the family – Irena, brother and mother – were sent on a month-long inhumane train journey in a cattle wagon to northern Siberia, to Trofimovk Island, the coldest place in Siberia. It was north of the Arctic Circle with permafrost and temperatures down to minus 50 degrees. Life consisted of hard work, constant hunger, disease and death – and everyone was constantly freezing. The conditions especially affected the elderly and children. Young people over the age of 10 had to work 12 hours a day in winter and 14 hours in summer. In the first year, a third of the deportees died. People lived in so-called “yurts”, a primitive house built of peat and with one large room. The windows were made of shards of ice and the temperatures never rose above freezing. Irena remembers that she often woke up with her hair frozen to the bed. In 1946, Irena’s mother died of starvation, aged 44. In the same year, a Lithuanian secret expedition succeeded in bringing children back to Lithuania, where they were living in hiding. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Irena took part in an expedition to find the remains of deported Lithuanians and afterwards rebury them in their homeland. She found her mother’s grave. With great difficulty, the coffin, made of fishing boxes, was dug up from the frozen ground. The mother’s body was preserved because of the permafrost. The same was – in Irena’s words – “her beautiful white hair”. Irena got married in 1960 and had two children. She received a medical education and at the same time worked as a tourist guide. She told about her family story at a reconstructed yurt in the Lithuanian National Open Air Museum in Rumsiskes.
Acrylfarbe, Bleistift, Radiergummi, Pastellfarbe. Papier, Pappe, Leinwand, Sackleinen, Garn.