Some of the vandalism did fall to the local inhabitants. As a result of shortages on construction material they pilfered the metal fences and grave markers to use on their farms. Others stole anything that might be of value to sell – good granite and marble lay around for the taking. And then there were the actual graves, the bodies and what lay with them. Grave robbers looked for jewels, gold teeth, anything that maybe had a resale value. They dumped out the bodies and plundered the coffins. Maybe it is good that the forest now covers what once was the old cemetery of Gnieballen. Perhaps what remains now lies there in peace, reclaimed, never again to be disturbed.
These tactics of abolishing cemeteries not only served to destroy and cleanse the land of previous inhabitants, but it served as a warning to the current liberated citizens. The Soviets were know as atheists, but is it right to say that as a result this made them more brutal say than the Spanish Inquisition, or the Puritans burnings witches in Salem , Massachusetts? The degree of brutality or savagery is rather irrelevant. It does however seem a rather unique approach to ethnic cleansing by getting rid of those already dead. It perplexes me, this act of taking out vengeance on bodies long dead. More than anything it violates a long standing human taboo about corpses, for whatever reason.
Yet there is something that puzzles me yet, something relating to the current day. So many Germans go back, so many want to reclaim their land, so many have formed these pseudo political organizations to take back lost lands. Do none of them want to ‘rebury’ the dead? Is there no one to even gather the bones in an act of respect for ancestors, burying the past in a deeper sense?
Tag: Soviet
Recycling Cemeteries Ch 6 pg 13
After October 1944 suddenly all these traditions, including old Baltic practices, were destroyed and the cemeteries vandalized. Perhaps more so than in other Soviet occupied areas, Klein Litauen presented an unusual combination of anti-German feeling, anti-Christian sentiment, and a need for revenge on both the part of the Lithuanians and the Russians. However the Lithuanians generally are Catholics, and it is the major religion of the country today. The cemeteries, full of all the heavy symbolism and taboos regarding death and desecration, resurrection, traditional burial practices, lure of riches beneath the ground, offered an opportunity to truly destroy the ancestors of the vanquished enemy. This is a familiar theme throughout history, something very primal to desecrate the dead, especially that of one’s enemies. And this they did.
In order to stop major flooding of the Memel River, the Soviet authorities needed to raise the damn at Kaukehmen. The material they used to do this was easily found in the big, still in use, cemeteries in Kaukehmen. An eyewitness recounts how everywhere there lay rotted body parts and at the damn were all sorts of other grave contents piled up and sticking out through the dirt.
The authorities also found plenty of other uses for the cemeteries. Road construction was another pressing need, which is what was done with the cemetery in Gruenheide. Problem was, when you drove along this street you could hear the wheels cracking the bones and in the ditches you could see human skulls lying about.
Soviet Collectives Ch6/pg 8
One day long ago before the War, my mother and her sister were in the Gnieballen cemetery. They came upon an extra stone that marked a grave near the family sites. When they returned home they asked Mama about who was buried there. She gave them the usual ‘don’t ask questions’ response. Sometime later, they were again at that same cemetery. They went to check on that curious marker they saw at their last visit. It was gone! A mystery! How could a grave marker disappear? Even more mysterious is that later they found it stashed in the attic of their own home. My mother always suspected it was the grave site of a child her mother had out-of-wedlock after WWI, before she married Julius. This child was the result of a brief liaison with a soldier passing through the area in World War I. There were several fierce battles in this area, notably in August 1917 as described in Solzhenitsyn’s novel of the same name. The grave and the baby were never spoken of, but so much of what occurred was never discussed. Family secrets, shame, disappointments.
After parking the car properly and securely, we got out and walked into the woods on the hunt for the Redetzki family cemetery of Gnieballen. Mom has a vague idea of where this cemetery was, but the woods back then were not as dense and widespread as they are now. It seems most all of this forest growth has occurred since the war, at least according to the topographic maps I have to guide me in my quest.
The Soviets in their drive to establish big collective farms effectively put an end to the European practice of small, farms scattered across the countryside. It disappeared from the former communist countries as they were organized into collectives owned by the state. In the U.S., the small towns began disappearing with the advent of farm mechanization and the automobile. The depression and dust bowl problems quickened this process. But the Russians actively destroyed the villages in part to obliterate traces of the previous cultures, and mainly to facilitate the collective system. They didn’t foster independence, you worked together for the greater good, or that was the dogma they put forth. They eliminated houses in areas where there were housing shortages. People forced out of homes, out of farm plots, forced out of means to support at least themselves. The great plan looked good on paper but in practice was a dismal failure.
Ch 2 We Take Flight pg 7
The plane itself is a used American plane evidenced by the English language warning signs and markings.
I had no idea what awaited us in Lithuania. At least at this point in my life when traveling I have cash and charge cards so what can happen? This was a far cry from my student days where cash was tight and traveling cheap meant waiting around a lot to get into hostels. Had to get there early to make sure I got a cheap bed, otherwise where would I stay? I had no hotel backup. And now we don’t have to worry about being hauled off by the Stasi, or KGB, or whatever just because we are Americans, or do we? Are remnants of the old guard lurking in doorways waiting to nab us innocents?
Anyway, just how bad could a place be that is all over the internet? This is the first time I’ve used the internet for travel arrangements. I did have to write the bed and breakfast for confirm our reservations, but that was after seeing photos of the house online. It is amazing how quickly these countries became wired.
Then there is my mother, and she still worries about visiting a country that she knew fifty five years ago. It is still a country existing only in memories, a place where she never stayed in a hotel or ate in restaurants. Her family didn’t own a car; transport was by horse cart, foot, bike or train. Then there are the stories she’s heard and read about Germans who’ve traveled back in recent years when they were still a Soviet satellite. They tell of poverty and desolation and how difficult it was to secure any sort of transport to move about. These returnees didn’t like what they found. Mentally she is prepared for scenes similar to what she experienced on her trips to East Germany years ago – a colorless socialist monolithic; streets full of sullen, expressionless people; everyone watching what they said and who they talked to.
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