Life Should Be Transparent

Conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the Twentieth Century and Today
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-963-386-359-6
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, 382 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 552 g

This book of thirteen conversations introduces us to the life of an exceptional person—theatre critic, Germanist, and long-time chair of the Open Lithuania Fund board—Irena Veisaite. The dialogue between Lithuanian historian Aurimas Švedas and a woman who reflects deeply on her experiences reveals both one individual’s historically dramatic life and the fate of Europe and Lithuania in the twentieth century.

Through the complementary lenses of history and memory, we confront with Veisaite the horrific events of the Holocaust, which brought about the end of the Lithuanian Jewish world. We also meet an array of world-class cultural figures, see fragments of legendary theatre performances, and hear meaningful words that were spoken or heard decades ago.

This book’s interlocutors do not so much seek to answer the question “What was it like?” but instead repeatedly ask each other: “What, how, and why do we remember? What is the meaning of our experiences? How can history help us to live in the present and create the future? How do we learn to understand and forgive?”

A series of Veisaite’s texts, statements, and letters, presented at the end of the book suggest further ways of answering these questions.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Svedas, Aurimas

Veisaite, Irena

Weitere Mitwirkende

Gruodis, Karla

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte Deutsche Geschichte: Holocaust
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Engaging Memory and History, Acknowledgements, 1. Life Should Be Transparent, 2. We Could All See That Lithuania Was Trapped, 3. What Had Happened to the World?, 4. To Forgive and Build the Future—These Are the Duties of the Living, 5. I Was Surrounded by Very Good People, 6. I Needed a Change, 7. I Saw My Work as a Kind of Mission, 8. The Theatre Suits My Interests and Temperament Perfectly, 9. People Developed Close Relationships within Islands, 10. Why Was Faust Redeemed, Even After Making a Pact with the Devil?, 11. I Felt a Powerful Connection with My Spiritual Brothers, 12. I Regret Nothing, But I Continue to Pay Dearly for My Decisions, 13. It Is Probably Only Possible to Feel a Part of History Once in One's Lifetime, In Lieu of an Epilogue: More and More Questions, But Fewer and Fewer Answers, Appendices, Key Biographical Events, Photos, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Aurimas Švedas is an associate professor at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University.

Irena Veisaite is a Lithuanian Jew and survived the Holocaust. She earned a doctorate in Leningrad in 1963 with a dissertation on the poetry of Heinrich Heine, and was a lecturer at the teacher's college in Vilnius from 1953 to 1997. She has also been head of the Thomas Mann Cultural Centre in Nida, Lithuania. She was awarded the Goethe Medal in 2012 for her contribution to the cultural exchange between Germany and Lithuania. A German scholar and theatre critic, she has been at the helm of the Open Society Fund for many years.