Pragaro vartai - Štuthofas
ENIn the preface of the hook 'Stutthof - the Gate to Hell' historian Artūras Bubnys gives a general description of the German occupation in Lithuania. The Nazis did not bring freedom for Lithuania as had been expected. In fact Lithuania became an administrative unit of the Third Reich. The Nazis disarmed Lithuanian freedom forces of the uprising of 1941 and banned all activities of political and public organisations. Initially Lithuanians took to legal measures in the fight for their rights, but very soon changed the tactics. Lithuanian freedom fighters realised the determination of the Nazis to deal with everyone disagreeing with their policy and order, and consequently the movement went to underground. Basically the activities of freedom fighters embraced anti-Nazi propaganda and the sabotage of the Nazi occupation regime. The result of such activities was the failure of the Nazis to form a Lithuanian SS unit. The Nazis answered to Lithuanian anti-Nazi activities by repression. The repression started in March 16-17 of 1943. Without any charges and trial 23 persons from the capital town Vilnius, 17 from Kaunas city, five from Marijampole city, and one person from Diauliai city were arrested and imprisoned in Stutthof concentration camp. Later in April, the same year, another the so called “journalist group”, came to the camp. Basically, the arrested were the representatives of Lithuania’s intelligentsia. Among the arrested there were four general assessors, five professors, four gymnasium head masters, three lawyers, two priests, teachers, journalists, diplomats and even students. The protests of Lithuanian people against such repression and continuous underground activities made the Nazis to declare the arrested as “the prisoners of honour’; Unfortunately, it has been done too late, as mate of the arrested either perished or left the camp with ruined health.After the War the fate of those who survived the atrocities of Stutthof concentration camp was none the better Some of them the Soviet occupants sent to concentration camps in Siberia, some of them died in the fight for the freedom of Lithuania against the Soviet occupation, and others were brought to strange countries. The plot of the book turns on the cities where Lithuanian martyrs had been arrested by the Nazis and sent to Stutthof concentration camp. The book is supplemented with biographical facts, memories, documentary material and photo pictures. Some memories arc very short and fragmentary, others - very minute, and some of them can be considered as a separate work of fiction. It should be noted that the memories of the former Stutthof prisoners Stasys Yla, a priest, and Antanas Kučinskas-Gervydas, a historian, published in 1950-1951 in the USA are nearly a collector’s item. A work of fiction “The Forest of Gods” by Balys Sruoga, also a prisoner of Stutthof concentration camp, published in Lithuania during the Soviet regime, had been strictly censored. The examination of the Nazi occupation in Lithuania during the Soviet period has been one-sided. The scholars could not make a deep and objective investigation of the issue except the activities of the Red partisans. But the tortures of Lithuanian martyrs at Stutthof reveal another side of reality. So an idea to collect and publish the memories and documentary material of the former Stutthof prisoners or their relatives occurred, when five years ago the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Stutthof concentration camp had been commemorated. The book comprises the material that should be known by all people of Lithuania. Let it be a monument for the Prisoners’ of Honour sacrifice to Lithuania.
