{"id":875,"date":"2023-09-06T19:06:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T17:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/?p=875"},"modified":"2023-09-20T18:25:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:25:17","slug":"jonas-zemaitis-the-commander-memories-of-his-niece-ausra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/2023\/09\/06\/jonas-zemaitis-the-commander-memories-of-his-niece-ausra\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonas \u017demaitis, the commander, memories of his niece Au\u0161ra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>&#8220;Jonas \u017demaitis, commander of fighting Lithuania&#8221;,<\/strong> is a project <strong>created by the Baltika-Baltijos Istorijos Association and LithuanianStories<\/strong> to remember the figure of <strong>the commander of the partisan resistance<\/strong>, with the pivotal support of <strong>Kotryna Buono, great granddaughter<\/strong> of \u017demaitis. The initiative is <strong>partially financed by the Ministry of Defense<\/strong> of the Republic of Lithuania. The work consists of <strong>a series of video interviews with people from civil society<\/strong> in today&#8217;s Lithuania: historians, representatives of institutions, ordinary citizens, people who are interested in and hand down <strong>the memory of the partisan resistance against the Soviet occupation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WATCH THE INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jonas \u017demaitis, la testimonianza della nipote Au\u0161ra ENGLISH SUB\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DgpQ573786g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Who was Jonas \u017demaitis?<\/strong> What is his legacy? How to remember him in today&#8217;s society? This is <strong>the testimony of Au\u0161ra Ju\u0161kait\u0117 Vilkiien\u0117<\/strong>, niece of the commander. <strong>Au\u0161ra was deported to Siberia<\/strong> at the age of five. She survived the exile. Currently she lives in Kaunas with her husband. The daughter Elena and her husband also live in the same city. <strong>Au\u0161ra has four grandchildren<\/strong>, two live in Vilnius, one in Milan in Italy, the fourth in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"645\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives-1024x645.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-876\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives-1024x645.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives-640x403.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ausra-and-her-relatives.jpg 1417w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Memories of Au\u0161ra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The interview with Au\u0161ra is an important testimony that tells the most personal and familiar aspect of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lka.lt\/general-jonas-zemaitis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"the Commander of the resistance\">the Commander of the resistance<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2026 My uncle \u017demaitis, during his years of military service in free Lithuania, often came to visit us in \u0160iluva. <strong>I remember that he was a handsome man:<\/strong> tall, friendly and very generous with us children. While he was studying at the Fontainebleau Academy of Artillery in France, he gave me a beautiful French doll, which walked, moved its head and even said &#8220;mama&#8221;\u2026 <strong>Since 1941, the year we were deported to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/yurta-lituani-mar-di-laptev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Siberia\">Siberia<\/a>, I haven\u2019t seen my uncle&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2026Once he came to us in the middle of the night with nothing \u2013 Au\u0161ra remembers &#8211; We started crying, my brother Ramojus and I, and <strong>Jonas had to go to the city to buy us something:<\/strong> my dad prepared the cart with the horses and the uncle bought the long-awaited candies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>THE EXILE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Au\u0161ra&#8217;s story continues with the memories of her exile,<\/strong> escape and return to Lithuania in hiding in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2026In Lithuania <strong>I was welcomed into the home of my godmother <\/strong>Antonina Berziniene. I lived with her throughout my stay in Lithuania. In 1948 I went to see my uncle Antanas in Kiaulininkai\u2026 <strong>A family friend, director of the school in Pagegiai, came to see me.<\/strong> I spent a few days with him and his wife. I remember they asked me to tell about my parents, about my escape, if I had met my uncle \u017demaitis who at the time was already one of the partisan leaders. <strong>Luckily I hadn&#8217;t met him, otherwise I certainly would have told him<\/strong>. Later, I was captured again, imprisoned and sent back to Siberia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Lithuania regained its independence in March 1990, <strong>Au\u0161ra found some documents in the archive of the KGB<\/strong> (the secret services of the Soviet Union). These documents show that <strong>Pagegiai&#8217;s acquaintances were intelligence informers <\/strong>and wanted to steal information from her to capture Jonas \u017demaitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WATCH THE INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jonas \u017demaitis, la testimonianza della nipote Au\u0161ra ENGLISH SUB\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DgpQ573786g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Jonas \u017demaitis, commander of fighting Lithuania&#8221;, is a project created by the Baltika-Baltijos Istorijos Association and LithuanianStories to remember the figure of the commander of the partisan resistance, with the pivotal support of Kotryna Buono, great granddaughter of \u017demaitis. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,10],"tags":[186,43,182,13,11,147,184,183,15,41],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lithuanianstories.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}