On Saturday, June 21st, Bill and I woke up to bright, sunny skies. I was glad for that, because I was really looking forward to visiting the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights. This very special museum, formerly known as the Museum of Genocide Victims, is housed in a building that, for about 50 years, was where the Soviet security services (also known as the KGB) operated in Vilnius.
Two years ago, when Bill and I were briefly visiting Riga, Latvia, on a cruise, we heard about a similar museum in that city. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit the museum in Riga, although I am hoping we can go back to Riga and see it. Now that I’ve read up on Riga’s museum, I’m actually thinking the one in Vilnius is probably superior. I’m still interested in going there, though. While it’s horrifying to learn about what people went through as the Soviets forcefully occupied neighboring territories, the fact that they all survived that regime is somehow hopeful to me.
Bill and I set off for the museum, enjoying the sunshine and pleasantly cool summer temperatures. Vilnius is a nice place to be in the summer, especially if you’re tired of hot weather! I took some photos along the way.
When we got to the museum, we took a moment to look around the area near the front door. It was a chance to catch our breaths and prepare ourselves for what we were about to see… and take a few more photos.
We walked into the old building and immediately had to climb a few steps to get to the cashier to buy tickets. We decided to just wander through the museum, but guided tours are also available and bookable through the museum’s official Web site. Tickets for the museum can also be purchased online for six euros per adult, although obviously we didn’t do that. Now that I see that guided tours are available and can be arranged by theme, maybe I would consider visiting again for a more in depth look. They do have to be booked ahead of time, though. The guided tours in English are quite reasonably priced at 20 euros per person. The ones in Lithuanian are only 15 euros per person!
I took many photos in the museum. As long as you aren’t using a flash or a tripod, it’s perfectly okay to take all the photos you want. I felt compelled to take photos, because I was so affected by what I was seeing and reading. A lot of what I saw reminded me a lot of what’s happening in the United States today.
I’m not saying our country is being invaded by Russia, but it is, in a sense, being occupied by a personality cult. And so many of the Lithuanian attitudes I read about in the museum reminded me of what I’ve seen from American Trump supporters. I’m sorry to say this, because I know some people might be offended. But I see it very plainly. Maybe it’s because I’ve been away for so long. Likewise to the methods used to subdue the country and get people to accept and comply with the occupation.
Anyway… here are a lot of photos of the exhibits before we reached the cells in the bottom of the museum.
Then, after exploring the upper two levels, it was time to venture into the basement level, which is where the cells were, along with the execution chamber, where over 1000 people were executed. We saw the exercise yards, too. It started with a look at the “boxes”, which were tiny closet sized “rooms” where new inmates were kept before they were processed.
From the boxes were examples of cells and other facilities used for interrogations, storage, punishments, and executions.
The following photos are of the courtyards/exercise boxes for the prisoners…
And finally, we visited the execution chamber. They had put glass over what appeared to be white sand. A video played a graphic clip from the 2007 Polish historical movie, Katyn, showing a man in handcuffs being forcefully wrestled into a room and shot in the back of the head. Another couple was in the room with us as we watched that violent and bloody scene. They were familiar with the movie and cringed in horror, just as we did, when the character was executed without a second’s hesitation. Then, the man’s dead body, still handcuffed, was dumped in a pile of other bodies, like so much trash.
We walked back up the steps from the execution chamber and retraced our steps back to the beginning of the museum, although we could have cut through the outside area. I’m glad we retraced our steps, though, because we missed a few rooms on the way down.
On the way out, we stopped to sign the guestbook. Some people wrote disrespectful comments in it, but most people– folks from all over the world– seemed to be as awestruck as Bill and I were.
Once we were finished visiting the museum, we stepped back out into the pleasant sunshine. I took a few more photos near the museum’s entrance and of what appeared to be a nearby shrine.
We decided we wanted to take a walk by the Neris River. Since this post is so heavy with photos, I think I’ll pick up with that story in the next installment. Stay tuned!
You must be logged in to post a comment.