An exhibition about Soviet deportations from Lithuania has opened in Brno and can be visited until June 14
On May 31, the exhibition Under the Alien Skies, which tells the painful story of deportations from Soviet-occupied Lithuania, opened in the South Moravian metropolis of Brno.
One of the most visited affiliations of the Brno City Museum, the Villa Löw-Beer, located next to the UNESCO World Heritage Villa Tugendhat, lent its premises free of charge to the exhibition prepared by the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre.
The exhibition is complemented by the personal family history of the Lithuanian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Laimonas Talat-Kelpša.
“My grandfather was exiled to Siberia at the age of sixteen, where he spent the next sixteen years of his life and met his grandmother, who was also involuntarily placed in a camp. My father was also born in Siberia. There are countless such families in Lithuania,” told the Lithuanian ambassador in his welcome to the guests of the event.
He also pointed out that the filtering of the population, the forced deportation of civilians, including minor children, and many other criminal Soviet practices are being repeated today in the Russian-occupied Ukraine.
“Not condemning the communist regime of the USSR at the international level and not demanding responsibility for the crimes committed is a mistake for which Ukrainians are paying with their lives today. However, it is not too late to make amends,” said the ambassador.
The opening of the exhibition was also attended by representatives of the South Moravian Region and the Brno City Museum.
On the eve of the opening, the Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė visited the exhibition, who was on a working visit to Brno at the time.
The exhibition will be open in the courtyard of Löw-Beer's villa for two weeks, until June 14, the Day of Mourning and Hope.
