Negatyvai sugrįžta pozityvais: Vytauto Račkausko palikimas

LTStraipsnyje pristatoma pamiršto Lietuvos tarpukario fotografo, Tomo Venclovos dėdės Vytauto Račkausko (1909–1996), per Antrąjį pasaulinį karą pasitraukusio iš Lietuvos į JAV, kolekcija – fotografijų negatyvai, kuriuose užfiksuotas Lietuvos tarpukaris, vokiečių okupacijos laikotarpis, 1944 m. lietuvių egzodas ir perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovykla Augsburge. Kolekciją Venclovų namai-muziejus priėmė saugoti 2019 m. ir šiuo papildymu dar labiau praplėtė savo veiklos bei tyrimų lauką, kuris per paskutiniuosius trisdešimt metų išgyveno reikšmingą transformaciją. Raktiniai žodžiai: Lietuvos tarpukario fotografija, Vytautas Račkauskas, namai-muziejus, paveldo paieška, paveldo grąžinimas, Tomas Venclova. [Iš leidinio]

ENThe article presents the latest collection of photographic negatives donated to Venclovas’ House Museum: a collection of photographic negatives of the forgotten Lithuanian interwar photographer, Tomas Venclova’s uncle Vytautas Račkauskas (1909–1996), who withdrew from Lithuania to the USA during World War II. The memory of Vytautas Račkauskas remained in a narrow circle of the family after 1944, and the legacy – the negatives of photographs, which captured the Lithuanian interwar period, the period of German occupation, 1944 exodus from Lithuania and the Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Augsburg – travelled to the United States together with their author. For many years, Venclovas’ House Museum has taken care of bringing the collection accumulated by Vytautas Račkauskas back to Lithuania. After the Lithuanian Council for Culture provided support to the project prepared by the museum, in 2019 the negatives were returned to Lithuania, to Venclovas’ House Museum. They were brought from the USA and donated by Mindaugas Viktoras Janulaitis, the son of Vytautas Račkauskas’ wife Birutė Janulaitytė’s brother Vytautas. The legacy of Vytautas Račkauskas’ photographs finally merges into a single story. The photographs are eloquent, testifying to the spirit of the times and the fate of an entire generation that in 1944 retreated together with the front. With this significant supplement, the museum has expanded its field of activity and research, which has undergone a major transformation over the past 30 years. [From the publication]