TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

Irena Veisaitė & Aurimas Švedas

the theme of the Holocaust has only been treated marginally in Lithuanian literature. 22 I understand that this was partly the result of the Communist Party’s anti-Semitic policies, but still . . . In speaking about such things, writers, not just historians, could help us to feel empathy, to oppose evil . . . But how little has this theme appeared even in the diaries of our most prominent writers and literary critics. As the historian Egidijus Aleksandravičius has correctly noted, “The Holocaust did not survive in Lithuanians’ collective memory.” 23 collection of Jonynas’s works; c.f.: Šuliny: proza, kino dramaturgija [In the well: Prose, film scripts] ed. Antanas A. Jonynas, Vilnius: Vaga, 1982. Šuliny was translated into English and published in the United States: The Hill, Marlboro, NJ: Affinity Billing, 2007. Jonas Avyžius, Sodybų tuštėjimo metas [When the homesteads died], Vilnius: Vaga, 1973. Algimantas Mackus, Augintinių žemė [Land of the adopted], Chicago: A. Mackaus knygų leidimo fondas, 1984. 22 The tendencies that Veisaitė outlines have to some degree been corrected by the appearance of Sigitas Parulskis’s novel Tamsa ir partneriai [Darkness and company] (Vilnius: Alma Littera, 2012; Eng. trans. Karla Gruodis (Darkness and Company), London: Peter Owen, 2018). This work inspired intense public discussion, debate and self-reflection about the Holocaust in Lithuanian society. The discussion further intensified with the publication of Rūta Vanagaitė’s book Mūsiškiai [Our own] (Vilnius: Alma Littera, 2016). Irena Veisaitė’s steady raising of the question of Lithuania’s relationship to the Holocaust has been explored in depth by Hektoras Vitkus in his dissertation “Holokausto atminties raida Lietuvoje“ [The development of Holocaust memory in Lithuania] (PhD diss., Klaipėda University, Lithuanian Institute of History, 2008). 23 Egidijus Aleksandravičius—(b. 1956). Lithuanian historian and commentator, long-time colleague of Irena Veisaitė’s at the Open Lithuania Foundation.

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