20190629_112900 Needlework "greeting cards" sent by political prisoners

This was my second visit -- this time I took my 14-year-old along -- to the museum that was previously known as the Genocide Victims' Museum, but is now called Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights. The "Occupations" refer to the years between 1940 and 1991 when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. "Freedom Fights" refers to the 9-year-long (1944 - 1953) partisan war against the occupants.

The museum is located in the former KGB prison where the KGB jailed, interrogated, and executed dissidents and freedom fighters.

These embroidered "greeting cards" were sent by political prisoners during the first few years of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania.

The top ones were sent by one woman political prisoner to another:

"Life is a sea, don't drown in it"

"Life is suffering"

"Through troubles and suffering into the bright future"

The two pieces of needlework at the bottom were made by a male political prisoner as a gift to a female friend. The left one, referring to the deportations of hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians to Siberia, says:

"Remember not me but our enslaved fatherland and brothers that suffer in Siberia and call for freedom."