Life should be Transparent: Conversations about Lithuania and Europe in the Twentieth Century and Today

This book presents 13 conversations between historian Svedas and German literature scholar and theatre critic Irena Veisaite, a Holocaust survivor who played a key role in her country's development after the fall of the Soviet Union. Conducted between 2013 and 2015, the conversations reflect on the meaning of a person's existence in history, focusing on Veisaite's personal history as a means to explore four periods of the 20th century from the perspective of an inhabitant of Lithuania and Central Europe: the interwar period from 1918 to 1940, when Lithuania established itself as an independent state; World War II, the first Soviet occupation, and Nazi occupation; the second Soviet occupation between 1944 and 1990, when life and spiritual freedom were oppressed in Lithuania; and the revival of Lithuanian independence in 1990 and the country's consolidation as a democratic European country by the end of the century. Veisaite describes her experiences, how and why people remember what they do, and the significance of historical experiences and memories in the 21st century. She discusses her childhood, family, Kaunas between the wars, the first Soviet occupation, and the outbreak of World War II; her mother's arrest by the Nazis, her life in the Kaunas Ghetto and her escape, her attempts to find refuge in Vilnius, and how she met her savior and second mother Stefanija Ladigiene; her high school and university studies in the early postwar years; her work at Vilnius Pedagogical Institute, the challenges of teaching under the Soviet regime, and the Theatre Club she created and its annual "Theatre Mosaic" event; Lithuanian theatre, her friendships with key figures in the field, and key productions; different strategies for surviving under an oppressive regime and intellectual life in the Soviet era; key works of literature for Veisaite; her personal history; and the story of the Open Society Fund-Lithuania, which developed programs that impacted post-Soviet Lithuanian society and stimulated developments in the humanities and culture, education, law, and other areas. The book was originally published in Lihuanian as Irena Veisaite.