TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

Irena Veisaitė & Aurimas Švedas that woman to say angrily, “Get out, you Jew!”

Thank God that life did not present you with such dilemmas.

You are correct—whenever I think of the bloody nature of the twentieth century, I am grateful that I did not have to experience what my grandparents did, that I did not have to face the decisions that tormented them. That is why, when most of my intellectual friends reacted with irony and doubt to the Nobel committee’s decision to award the 2012 Peace Prize to the European Union, I saw it quite differently. Yes, the European Union is not a perfect political community, but, thanks to its existence, we have had seventy years of peace on this continent. And Lithuania, as a member of the EU, is protected from military aggression and the threat of occupation, although the situation has recently changed somewhat . . . I do not understand people who only berate the EU instead of trying to contribute to its improvement. After all, we have to recognize that our geographic situation and cultural traditions make us part of Europe.

138