Mokytojas, šaulys, kraštotyrininkas Emilis Šneideris (1904-1957)

ENEmilis Albertas Šneideris was born on September 29 in 1904 in Šakiai county, Griškabūdis parish, Striūpai village. He was baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Šakiai Parish. His parents Karolis Leopoldas Šneideris and Joana Vilhelmina Ešytė had no real estate, they lived in a hut on an alien land. There were 7 children in the Šneideriai family: 4 brothers and 3 sisters. Emilis was the elder, so he pastured the animals and worked for a farmer as a farmhand for one year. In 1918 he graduated from Griškabūdis primary school. In 1919 – 1920 he studied privately and passed the exams. On January 24, 1921 he entered the Kaunas annual teachers’ courses organized by the Ministry of Education. On December 20, 1921 he completed these courses with the title of a teaching assistant. In the summer of 1922 he attended teachers’ summer courses in Kaunas. On January 9, 1922, according to the resolution of the Alytus County Education Commission, Emilis Šneideris was appointed to work as a teacher from February 10 in Alytus county, Liškiava parish, Ricieliai primary school. He worked at this school until July 1, 1932. On March 20, 1922, Emilis Šneideris joined the Liškiava Rifle Squad, on April 2 he was elected to the squad board as secretary. Later he belonged to Merkinė and Alytus rifle squads. He also participated in the activities of the organization Jaunoji Lietuva and the Union for the Liberation of Vilnius. He preserved the flags of these organizations, taking them to Germany and later to Canada. Since December 11, 1935 Emilis Šneideris was hired to work as a clerk in the Inspectorate of Primary Schools of District I of Alytus County, where he worked until the end of September 1940. On October 1, 1940 he was appointed Executive Secretary of this Inspectorate.On February 16, 1939, under the Act of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Antanas Smetona No. 135 Emilis Šneideris was awarded the 2nd degree medal of the Order of Gediminas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for the merits to Lithuania. Emilis Šneideris had been collecting folklore and antiquities since 1922. In the beginning, he kept the ancients in a jug. He tried to build a new school for the children of Ricieliai area, collected 120 signatures, and went to Kaunas. The school was built in one year and opened in 1926. Village people with horses carried stones and bricks. School construction documents were laid in the foundations of the school. The school had facilities for a museum and rooms for teachers. In the new premises, the museum grew, the accounting of exhibits was carried out, and expeditions were organized. Numismatics and archaeology dominated among the museum’s exhibits, but there were also books. Emilis Šneideris contributed a lot to the preparation of Petras Akiras-Biržys’ book Alytus County (Kaunas, 1931). It contains a lot of material collected by Emilis Šneideris about Liškiava parishes: ‘From the Collection of Folk Songs’, ‘From the Collection of Lent Songs’, ‘Fairy Stories and Fairy Tales’, ‘Songs and Lamentations’, ‘Geography and History Issues’, ‘Homestead, Huts, their Parts and Interior Accessories’, ‘Wear and Jewellery’, ‘Food and Drink’, ‘Superstitions and Spells’.Since the beginning of September 1940 Emilis Šneideris was the head of the Alytus Dzūkai Museum (he signed the documents as a ‘Patron’). Emilis Šneideris remarried for the second time with Erna (Kremer) Schneider (1910 – 2008) on February 5, 1938. They had 2 sons: Benno Leonard Schneider (1939 – 1984) was born in Alytus, and Reinhardt Edwin Schneider was born at the beginning of 1945 in Ober Sarten Kreis Soltan, Germany. At the beginning of 1941, Emilis Šneideris moved with his family to Germany. They moved to live in Canada on December 23, 1947. Emilis Šneideris worked as a hired worker. Later, after acquiring the land, he established a tobacco farm. In his free time he liked to play the accordion and sing Lithuanian and German songs. Emilis Šneideris died from a heart attack on June 19, 1957 in Rodney, Ontario, Canada. He was buried in Rodney City Cemetery. [From the publication]