TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

Irena Veisaitė & Aurimas Švedas

deteriorating. He was experiencing terrible pains and was feverish. When he briefly revived, he kept asking us to let his family and his girlfriend know what had happened to him. He had a photograph of her in his pocket. Thank God that, when the Russians appeared on the street, we were able to give them the wounded boy. I would like to think that he survived. You cannot imagine what a horrific thing war is! It is nothing more than legitimated murder! Most of the people who had been sucked into the gears of this killing machine deserved pity more than condemnation. What was some Russian or German, who had been forced by his government to take up a weapon and go and kill innocent people, guilty of? In situations of mandatory military service, we can hardly blame conscripts who are fighting on one side of the front or the other. I finally grasped this after reading the play Der Stellvertreter , by the then famous German writer Rolf Hochhuth, which blames the Vatican for the concordat it had with Nazi Germany. 17 As I have already mentioned, by Thursday of that week I had realized that I could not bear it any longer. I packed my most valuable possessions into two suitcases and prepared to hike to Žirmūnai. It seemed that the fighting had died down somewhat, but as soon as I got to the gates of the yard I once again heard an exchange of fire. So I had no other choice but to pick up my suitcases and go back up to our apartment. 17 Ger. Der Stellvertreter [The deputy], 1963.

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