Daktaro Kazio Bobelio politinė biografija. Kn. 1, Tarnystė Lietuvos laisvės bylai

LTKnyga apie žymaus politiko dr. Kazio Bobelio gyvenimą, paženklintą nenuilstamos kovos už Lietuvos laisvę. Iš gausios dokumentinės medžiagos, nuotraukų ir atsiminimų fragmentų susidėsto ryški iškilios asmenybės, nedvejojusios pasirinkto tikslo svarba ir sėkme, portreto mozaika. Derindamas tiesioginį mediko darbą su prasminga ir įvairiapuse visuomenine veikla, dr. K. Bobelis vadovavo žymiausioms lietuvių išeivijos politinėms organizacijoms (Amerikos lietuvių tarybai, Vyriausiam Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetui) ir reikšmingais darbais prisidėjo prie Lietuvos laisvės sąjūdžio organizavimo Vakaruose bei nepriklausomybės atkūrimo. Pirmoje knygoje atskleidžiamas laikotarpis nuo vaikystės ir brandos metų Kaune, studijų (Vokietijoje), darbo ir politinės veiklos Jungtinėse Amerikos Valstijose, iki 1992 m., kai buvo sustabdyta Vyriausiojo Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komiteto veikla. [Anotacija knygoje]Reikšminiai žodžiai: 20 amžius; Politikai; Diplomatai; Politinė istorija; Emigracija; Prisiminimai; Biografijos; Tje Lithuanian XX c. history; Politicians; Diplomats; Political history; Exile; Memoires; Biografies.

ENThe author of this book studies the activities of the eminent Lithuanian-American politician and surgeon Dr. Kazys Bobelis, who was actively involved in organizations and political movements in the West for the liberation of Soviet-occupied Lithuania. He presented the case for the illegality of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and for Lithuania's right to independence to the countries of the free world, to international political institutions, and to various nongovernmental organizations, and he carried out this mission: as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lithuanian-American Community, 1964-1975; as president of the Lithuanian-American Council (ALT, Amerikos Lietuvių Taryba), 1970-1979; and as president of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK, Vyriausiasis Lietuvos Išlaisvinimo Komitetas), 1979-1992. Kazys Bobelis was born in Kaunas on March 4, 1923. His parents were the Lithuanian army officer Jurgis Bobelis and Sofija (Ulinskaitė) Bobelis. He attended high school at Aušra Gymnasium in Kaunas. After the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on June 15, 1940, he and his brother, Jurgis, participated in the anti-Soviet resistance activities of the underground. On June 22, 1941, after the German-Soviet war had started, he joined the Lithuanian freedom fighters against the Soviet occupiers. In the fall of 1941, Kazys Bobelis began his medical studies at Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas. When the German occupational government closed Lithuanian schools of higher education in 1943, Bobelis continued his medical studies at Franz Joseph University in Graz, Austria. As the Soviet Army was approaching, he retreated from Graz and, in September 1945, enrolled at the University of Tübingen in Germany.In March 1947, Bobelis completed his studies, and in 1948, he defended a doctoral dissertation in medicine and began his practice as a surgical assistant at the Jewish displaced persons hospital run by the American Army in Stuttgart-Backnang, Germany. With the closing of Backnang Hospital, he emigrated to the United States of America and settled in Chicago, where his parents, Jurgis and Sofija Bobelis, were already living after arriving as war refugees fleeing the Bolsheviks and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. Living in Chicago, in April 1949, Dr. Kazys Bobelis started working at a number of Chicago's hospitals, while at the same time continuing his medical studies at the University of Illinois. On March 4, 1952, Dr. Bobelis was licensed by the State of Illinois to practice medicine. On August 7, 1954, he started a family, marrying Dalia Devenytė, who had completed her studies in sociology at Pembroke College (Brown University). Being hardworking and determined to pursue a professional career, during 1955-1958 Dr. Bobelis deepened his knowledge of surgery and was accepted for an advanced medical specialty in urology at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 1957-1958, he undertook the further study of surgery, with a residency at Boston University Hospital, and during 1958-1960, he worked and studied under prominent urologists (including E. E. McCrea) at Philadelphia General Hospital. In January 1959, he and his family moved to the Chicago suburb of Elgin, and began his private practice as a surgeon urologist. At the same time, he began to teach urology at Loyola University in Chicago and at the Chicago School of Medicine. In 1961, he was admitted to the prestigious medical organization the International College of Surgeons. In I960, he was elected chief of surgery and later president of the medical staff at St. Joseph's Hospital in Elgin.In 1975, in Kansas City and Chicago, Dr. Bobelis passed the American Boards of Urological Surgery examination. In November 1975, the federal government appointed him to a three-year term on the National Advisory Council on Regional Medical Programs. In 1976, he was appointed by the governor of Illinois as a member of the Illinois Board of Medical Examiners. In 1978, he was elected president of the Kane County Medical Society. It can be maintained that Dr. Bobelis' professional career went hand in hand with his calling as a Lithuanian patriot to devote all his energies to the liberation of his subjugated homeland, Lithuania. Endowed with a natural talent for organizing, as a teenager he was already noted for his social activism, which did not decrease during his years of university study and which constantly increased with the maturity and experience of life. The high reputation he had achieved in his profession and his social activism were the factors that determined for Dr. Bobelis his historically significant mission as an émigré political leader. It should be noted that Dr. Bobelis' rise to the position of a political leader was consistent. He received the fundamentals of social activism from the Lithuanian Catholic youth group Ateitininkai and from student organizations as well as from medical professional societies. From 1964 onward, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Lithuanian-American Community, where he not only represented his own chapter and profession but also did a great deal of work for the preservation of Lithuanian culture by supporting youth organizations, Lithuanian schools, and the Lithuanian press and by helping develop and finance émigré cultural life. [From the publication]