EBU | Lithuania deportations commemoration

LRT © 2016

DOPESHEET

Eurovision winner Jamala joined Lithuanian commemorations of mass soviet deportations on Tuesday in Vilnius.

‘By telling my story, I will become part of your story’, said Jamala before her concert in Vilnius Cathedral square dedicated to anniversary of mass deportations that soviets started on June 14, 1941, a year after it occupied Lithuania and other Baltic countries.

Jamala won 2016 Eurovision with a song 1944 that tells a story of Jamala’s great grandmother who experienced soviets deportations against Crimean Tatars. He will sing the song late in the evening in Cathedral square.

In the morning Jamala met President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite.

On Tuesday Lithuania marks a day of mourning and hope to commemorate mass deportations.

Based on the data of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania (LGGRTC) more than 280,000 people were deported from Lithuania in 1941–1953.

Lithuanians attending the commemorative events today observed a minute of silence. Deportees and their children shared their stories.

Parliament held a solemn commemoration and handed over a symbolic flag to the youth that every year travels to Siberia to repair graves of deportees and visit those who did not came back to Lithuania.

SHOTLIST

Vs of Jamala meeting Lithuanian President

Sound bite (Russian), JAMALA, Eurovision song contest 2016 winner:
By telling my story I will become part of your story. The song 1944 that won tells a story about my family, my great grandmother, who experienced deportation in 1944, therefore the song is called 1944. A forthcoming concert is particularly important for me and it is an honor for me.

President Grybauskaite starts reading names of deportees

Sound bite (Lithuanian) TERESE PALUKAITYTE VALUČKIENE, former deportee:
I remember the most the tears of my parents when they said in the morning that we should prepare to leave to Siberia. I went to a 4 school class back then and we had no idea what the Siberia was.

Parliament hands a symbolic flag to the youth that travel to Siberia

Sound bite (Lithuanian) ALGIRDAS DIDIKAS, former deportee:
At first I did not believe, but later when I looked in the archive, it appeared that we were deported by declaring us "enemies of workers"

Archive shots from LRT documentary