News

On 12 March, an international conference “Preservation of the Lithuanian Identity: the Successes and Losses”, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the forced expatriation of Lithuanians from the Suwałki region was held in Sejny.

The conference was co-organized by the Lithuanian community in Poland, the Society of Lithuanians of Poland, the Bishop Antanas Baranauskas Foundation “Lithuanian House” in Sejny, Department of History at Vytautas Magnus University and the Lithuanian Catholic Church History Centre.

According to the Director of the Department of Lithuanians Living Abroad of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arvydas Daunoravičius, who participated in the event, this conference promotes understanding of common historical past, while joining experts from neighbouring countries to discuss historical facts that are still little known to the public.

“The fact that after seven decades we are talking about the difficult period of history shows a massive impact of this dramatic period on Lithuanians and other people of the multicultural land of Suwałki, who were affected by the inhuman agreement between the two totalitarian regimes,” A.Daunoravičius said.

According to the agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany of 10 January 1941 on the exchange of population and the secret protocol, persons of Lithuanian descent and inhabitants of other nationalities were forcedly evicted from the Suwałki region in the German-occupied Poland to the Soviet-occupied territory of Lithuania.

During the first months of 1941, over 14 thousand people were forcibly evicted from the Suwałki region.

Lithuania has granted the victims’ state and has given the status of displaced persons to the affected people, and they also receive victims’ state pensions.

At the event that began after the St. Mass at the Sejny basilica, presentations were made by Lithuanian and Polish historians from the Lithuanian Institute of History, Vytautas Magnus University, University of Białystok, the State Archives in Suwałki and from the Darius and Girėnas gymnasium in Punsk.