It is very interesting to know how we all got here. We already know why we all got here. Thanks to IL Volo our world got smaller and warmer. We are all here holding hands. Just before Christmas, Gina shared some Lithuanian Christmas traditions with us. In the comments I asked her to tell us why and how she left her home in Lithuania. ~Marie
I never mentioned why my family and thousand others fled Lithuania and the other two Baltic Sates because I knew that there might be some Russian readers of our blog.
Common citizens are not at fault of many of the terrible things done Nation to Nation and I know there are many Russian fans of Il VOLO.
My dad and many others were involved in politics and in resistance organizations and had to flee to avoid being arrested and sent to Siberia. We left in the middle of the night in a “cattle” train and wound up in Opel, Germany. We lived in a big gymnasium with the rest of the people that fled till people were able to buy their way out of this camp. Until then the men had to work for the Germans. After my dad got us out of there we went to Salzburg, Austria till WWII ended and the American Army came in with chewing gum and silk stockings.
Many more things transpired and eventually all displaced persons were scooped up and placed in “Displaced Persons” camps. From there we eventually got to emigrate to the States.
The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 established a quota of several hundred thousand who qualified as a “DP” to get Visas to the States.
After we went thru a screening Camp (No one with TB got to go) and eventually came on a troop ship to the US.
There were many in between events but it would make a long story.
I was young and looking back all the kids and young teenagers adjusted to all the changes but the adults and especially the men had a rough time.
Different organizations sponsored people in their cities and other DP’s that left before would guarantee that you had a place to go to. We wound up in Cleveland, OH in l950.
