General Chat

My sister has about 100 Lithuanians from Portsmouth camping on the campsite.
She went up to check everything was okay, yesterday, and noticed colourful posters on trees, around the woodland.
Apparently, it's 30 years since Lithuania gained independence.

She mentioned this on Whatsapp, when her daughter in law said that her great grandmother was a Lithuanian Jew, who had escaped, as a child, during the war, and joined elder siblings who were living in the UK.
She never saw her parents again - but was able to go to school - something the Russians wouldn't allow Jewish Lithuaninan children to do.
How did she escape? This led to some research, and we came across this:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/chiune-sugihara-my-father-japanese-schindler-saved-6000-jews-lithuania

I'd never heard about this man - yet we all know about Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 Jews.

Thanks for the link, Maggie.

That is so interesting and something new to me.
So many nations have special people, who we know so little about.

Sounds like a very special time for the campers.
I knew Portsmouth had many people with Polish roots and there is a special memorial in one of the cemeteries, but I didn't know there was a strong Lithuanian link too.

They absolutely love it, Gwyn, and were so happy they could come.

Their booking in April was cancelled, due to covid-19, but, as they're sleeping/sharing tents, in families, my sister managed to give them a time that the cubs had to cancel, due to cubs of different families sharing tents, being a 'no-no' at the moment.

What an amazing man Chiune Sugihara was! <3

Have not read your link yet but I used to work in the Estee Lauder factory with a very old lady who was deaf and mumbled. Everybody used to laugh about her.

I worked with her one day and engaged her in conversation. That very old lady was not quite sixty and she was deafened by a bomb exploding close to her when she and her family walked across Lithuania and Germany to escape the Russians.

Her dad, who eventually worked on the local council, the same as mine, ha owned a restaurant in Vilneus and had loaded everything they had on a horse and cart but the Germans requisitioned the horse so tey walked across Germany with what they could carry.

Wow, Sharron, I bet that lady had some stories to tell.
It's a shame we rarely hear stories of 'real' people.

Fascinating information, Maggie

How kind of you to engage that lady in conversation, Sharron. Doesn't sound as tho many other colleagues took the trouble to get to know her. She and her family went through so much for frredom.

Lizx

Portsmouth and Southampton are full of Poles. The Poles have a history of hostile relationships with Vilnius and the Jewish diasapora going back a thousand years.

My great aunt married a guy from Riga but he was a Catholic. The Russians murdered all his rellies in 1946. He was the only one who made it to London.

I think the expression is, 'there are a lot of Polish people in Southampton and Portsmouth'.
As I have actually lived in both Southampton , and Portsmouth, I can confirm neither city is actually 'full of' any particular ethnicity.

My great, great uncle worked in a Chinese Laundry in Southampton - actually run by Chinese people, with many Chinese workers.
However, even that laundry wasn't 'full of' Chjnese people, because my gg uncle worked there - and he wasn't Chinese! :-D :-D :-D

Also, Chiune Sugihara rescued Jewish Lithuanians, but never mind.