Moldovan parliament hosts novel exhibition

Chisinau, 14 March /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s parliament this week hosts an exhibition of the Museum of Genocide Victims of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, the parliament’s communication and public relations centre has reported.       

The exhibition titled, „UNDER THE ALIEN SKIES: Lithuanian People in Soviet Hard Labor Camps and Exile in 1940-1958, is a homage paid to the Lithuanians who experienced the horrors of deportations, exile and camps, as well as a commitment to keep alive the memory of history and the wish for such atrocities to never take place again, the organizers of the exhibition said.      

MP Valentina Rotaru, who is a member of the Moldova- Lithuania friendship group, highlighted the importance of the memory and of getting aware of the history, in order not to allow its repeating.   

Those 20 panels show deportations of Lithuanian citizens and their detention in camps. The exhibition contains more materials which have not been earlier displayed: photos, documents, sheets of letters and intimate diaries, drawings, as well as scenes photographed secretly. The materials exhibited are from funds of the Special Archives and State Central Archive of Lithuania, Lithuanian National Museum, Museum of Deportations, Exile and Resistance from Kaunas, Alka Museum from the Žemaitia region, Regional Museum from Taurage, as well as from personal archives of more people.       

So far, the exhibition has been hosted by the European Parliament, with exhibits subsequently displayed in Poland, France, the United Kingdom.    

The organizers of the exhibition are the Embassy of Lithuania in Moldova and the state programme, Historical recovery and turning to account of the memory of the victims of the totalitarian and Communist regime from the Moldovan SSR in 1940-1953. 

Official data shows that, in 1941, as well as on the period 1945-1953, 132,000 people were exiled from Lithuania and 150,000 people were sent to prisons and camps.   

This year, Lithuania marks the 100th anniversary of getting its Independence. The parliament building was illuminated in the colours of the Lithuanian national flag on 16 February, when Lithuania celebrated its national day, as a token of solidarity with this country.