Macikų lagerių patirtys žmonių atsiminimuose: Šilutės Hugo Šojaus muziejaus 2018–2020 metų etnografiniai tyrimai

LTStraipsnio tikslas – atskleisti Šilutės rajono savivaldybės inicijuoto Macikų lagerių objektų komplekso (1941–1955 m.) sutvarkymo projekto etnografinių tyrimų rezultatus. Šiame straipsnyje siekiama pateikti Šilutės Hugo Šojaus muziejaus etnografiniuose tyrimuose 2018–2020 m. užfiksuotą kultūrinę atmintį apie Macikų lagerį po 1945 m. (sovietinį laikotarpį) šiais aspektais: aptariama pateikėjų perteikiama bendra to meto atmosfera, už ką žmonės patekdavo į gulago lagerį, iš kokio socialinio sluoksnio ir kokio amžiaus, apibūdinamos gyvenimo sąlygos, darbas, bandymai pabėgti, ligos, mirtys ir laidojimas, kartu kalintų kriminalinių nusikaltėlių poelgiai, kalinčiųjų bendravimas su namiškiais, Macikų kapinių likimas ir paminklai, pasakojimai apie karcerį. Raktiniai žodžiai: Macikai, gulago lageris, politiniai kaliniai, pokaris, atmintis. [Iš leidinio]

ENAll the Macikai camps are a unique object of the historical and cultural memory with a national and international significance. This is the only place in Lithuania, and one of the few places in Eastern and Central Europe, with prison structures of both totalitarian regimes. In 1941, with the outbreak of the war between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, a prisoner of war (POW) camp for Red Army prisoners was established at Macikai. In 1943, a second POW camp for Allied Air Force pilots was established next to it. As the political circumstances changed, in 1945 the Soviet Union set up a camp for POWs from Third Reich forces. While still operating, in 1945–1946 part of the Nazi camp was turned into a unit of the Gulag, a penitential colony for political and criminal offenders. Most of the prisoners in the camp were disabled. Unlike other prisons in Lithuania, a Mother and Child House was established there. The Gulag camp was closed in 1955. The commemoration of the camps’ historical memory began in 1989. The Macikai Nazi German Prisoner of War Camp and the Soviet Union Gulag Camp Complex, located in the village of Macikai in the Šilutė district, has been protected by the state since 15 July 1993. The main goal of the article is to show the results of the ethnographic research which was initiated by the Šilutė district as part of the project ‘The Conception of the Organisation of the Macikai Complex of the Nazi Germany Prisoner-of- War Camp and the USSR Gulag Camps Complex (1941–1955) and the Plan of its Implementation in the Period 2019–2024’. In this article, the author sets out to represent the cultural memory of Macikai that has been recorded in ethnographic research by the Šilutė Hugo Scheu Museum in 2018–2020. Most of the informants claim that relatives who returned from the Macikai camp talked about life there reluctantly and in a fragmentary way.People avoided politics as an incomprehensible and dangerous force, because they did not know when and for what propaganda they could be charged, denied access to school, or destroyed at work, or otherwise. The camp was mentioned as a synonym for a place of punishment. Political prisoners were admitted to the Gulag camp for various reasons: they challenged the authorities and did not fit in the new regime, they did not pay backhanders or provide tax receipts, they were ‘bourgeois nationalists’ because they had had a maid and hired a neighbour, they supported the partisans, they refused to join a collective farm, they criticised the authorities, etc. Prisoners were taken from families in households of all sizes. The ages of detainees ranged from 14 to 15-year-olds to 68-year-olds, with the majority arrested in their 40s to their 70s. The age of the informants was between 50 and 93 years old, most of them in their 80s or 90s. Age, education, health status and marital status were irrelevant to the regime. It was necessary to set an appropriate example to the public of what awaited rebellious and disobedient people. The living conditions in the Gulag were poor. Hungry prisoners were forced to work: cutting grass, felling trees, working in a sawmill, repairing bridges, and planting gardens. In the camp, the distribution of household chores was organised by the prisoners themselves: to bring bread, to clean out the toilet bucket, the dining room tables, or the floor, to take care of hot water and of the cell, and regular grave diggers were appointed. The diseases, stomach ailments, diabetes, mental illness, scurvy and pneumonia, were caused mainly by malnutrition, weakness and abuse. Deaths were part of the daily life in the camp. Families learned about the deaths of loved ones through neighbours, when letters were returned, and sometimes directly from the guards. Co-criminals were of great concern to political prisoners.They stole food, and even said the leadership was ‘hiring’ criminal inmates to ‘keep order’. It was possible to get a short meeting with inmates, write letters and send parcels. The material from the expeditions shows that 11 people were buried in Macikai cemetery. The place of burial in Macikai cemetery is usually never known. Most headstones are randomly built. After the closure of the camp, Macikai cemetery was affected by ploughing, cattle grazing and construction. Of the remaining buildings today, the punishment cell is the most visited. In 1995, it became part of the exhibition of the Šilutė Museum. Summarising the recollections of the informants, it can be concluded that practically all people remember the Soviet period as a time of fear, violence and insecurity; they feel remorse for broken families, homesteads, wrongful convictions, and tortured loved ones. The Gulag camp remains in the memory as a synonym for suffering and ignorance. The stories show respect for the cemetery and the dead, and a strong desire to know where dead relatives are buried. Personally told narratives of historical events are not always to be regarded as objective. However, a duty imposed on the memory by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, in addition to the preservation of material objects and written sources, is an obligation to respect other narrators, although personal stories do not always correspond to the formal discourse of history. Keywords: Macikai, Gulag camp, political prisoners, postwar time, memory. [From the publication]