PART 5 OF 6

The CHAPEL-COLUMBARIUM

The focal point of the Memorial Complex of Tuskulėnai Peace Park is the Chapel-columbarium. The building with its exceptional architecture was intended to memorialize and honor the memory of the victims of Soviet terror. This chapel is a place of eternal rest for the remains of 717 people, killed between 1944 and 1947 in NKGB-MGB internal prison, which were found and exhumed during archeological research in the territory of Tuskulėnai Manor between 1994 and 1996 and in 2003. The project authors chose the structure in the form of a burial mound which you can see from the above photo.

The Chapel-columbarium is a barrow-shaped building, the underground part of which there is a dome-shaped chapel surrounded by a gallery of crypts with coffins bearing the remains of the victims exhumed from the territory of Tuskulėnai Peace Park. The remains were brought to the crypt on the All Souls’ Day in 2004.

As we said, the Chapel-columbarium is the focal point of The Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park and the remains of the victims that are interned inside is the focal point of the Chapel-columbarium. The first time I went inside to visit with the people who have become one of the symbols of Soviet terror, I honestly can’t put into words the myriad of emotions that overcame me. Quite often I am in the KGB Museum. When I am in there I feel anger towards the people that tortured and killed my fellow country men and women. In the Chapel-columbarium it is not possible for me to feel anger. It is also not possible for me to completely describe my emotions but one is of great sadness for not only how the lives of these people ended but how the Soviets disposed of their bodies. The one thing that really strikes me is when I look at all the small caskets that hold the remains of these people and look at the numbers on them is that - These people had names, they were people.

Please look at casket 048 in the photo above.

This is someone’s son or daughter, perhaps also someone’s brother or sister. It also could be someone’s wife or husband or father. This person also had friends and colleagues at work. At one time this person had a name – Now they are 048. Now they are known only to God.

As I said, it is very difficult to put my emotions into words but if you have even the smallest understanding of what I’m saying about casket 048 you will begin to appreciate the solemn power this place can have over you.

As the bodies were exhumed from the massed graves, no one knew the identity of each of the skeletal remains. To look at each, they did not know who was a Lithuanian Partisan that went to the forests to take up armed resistance against the brutal tyrannical power that had taken their country’s freedom away, who was a member of the Polish Armia Krajowa, who had collaborated with the Nazis or who was a deserter from the Soviet Army.

As one person put it, “it wasn’t possible to separate the bones into two neat piles — patriots here, criminals there”.

All that was known was that there were now more than 700 bodies that needed to be buried in some civilized way. In a civilised society, when a person dies, civilised people burry the deceased in a civilised way. This was and is the purpose of the Tuskulenai Chapel-columbarium and the Memorial Complex of Tuskulėnai Peace Park. It provides a civilised final resting place to these victims of Soviet terror whose individual identities and what they did during life are now known only to God.

About thirty minutes before I entered the Chapel-columbarium I had read the letter of farewell written by Lithuanian partisan leader Bronius Eiva to his wife. All the time I was looking at the numbers on all the caskets his words were repeatedly going through my mind

“Please find out when I was shot or hanged and where they bury me. Dig me up and take me to Šeta cemetery.”

With his words echoing through my head I could not help but think that unfortunately they could not bury Bronius in Šeta cemetery because they didn’t know which body was his but at least they were able to dig him up and give him the best possible burial under the circumstance, have him blessed by a Holy person of the Church and give his family a place to come visit him.

Dear readers, for those of you that live outside of Lithuania I would highly recommend that during your next visit to make it a point to go to first to the KGB Museum and then to The Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park and go inside the Chapel-columbarium. For our readers that live in or near Lithuania I would highly recommend you also make the time to do the same. While inside your thoughts and reasons for visiting the people that were taken away from their friends, families and countries in such a violent manner will be your own but I am quite sure that you will feel the solemn power this place will have over you

This memorial and sacral building was designed with regard to the surrounding landscape: it looks like a barrow from the park side, and the main entrance is established on its steep, riverbank side. The main material used for the construction was concrete, which suits the underground building due to its durability; and its stark decorative properties reflect the tragic destiny of the people buried there.

The authors of the chapel-columbarium project were: Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas, Algirdas Umbrasas, Lina Masliukienė, Gitenis Umbrasas, Gediminas Karalius, Marius Šaliamoras, and Jūras Balkevičius. The planning of the project began in 1996, and the chapel was built in 2003-2004. In 2009, the dome of the chapel-columbarium was decorated with an arched mosaic “Trejybė” (Trinity) created by the painter and monumental artist G. Umbrasas. It pictures the intertwined wings of three birds: a swan, a hawk and an owl, symbolizing Fate, Happiness and Freedom. In the same year, the barrow was capped with a metal crown created by sculptor G. Karalius.

In 2006, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania added to the list of memorial days by announcing the designation of 28^th September as Tuskulėnai Victims Memorial Day. This day is commemorated every year in The Memorial Complex of Tuskulėnai Peace Park.

Obviously the Chapel-columbarium is locked at all times but this is absolutely no problem. To get inside the Chapel-columbarium, where the remains of the victims of the Soviet totalitarian regime rest in peace, simply go to the visitor center which is located on the grounds in the building marked Žirmūnų Gatvė 1N.

Information Center at Žirmūnų Gatvė 1N
Photo property of The Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park. All rights reserved

Tell the staff that you would like to go inside the Chapel-columbarium and they will be more than happy to escort you inside. As I said before, every member of the staff here are wonderful people and they will enjoy sharing all the information with you. In fact I can honestly tell you that meeting with and talking to the staff here will be one of the highlights of your visit. Every one of them is absolutely fantastic.

Look for the next article
Part 6 of 6

The SECRETS OF TUSKULĖNAI MANOR

Dear readers

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Dear VilNews readers, we need your help. As we have said, the victims that were executed in the NKGB–MGB internal prison in between 28 September 1944 and 16 April 1947 were buried in secret mass graves in the territory of the Tuskulėnai Manor. These victims have been found, their bodies recovered, given the dignified burial they never received and their souls have been blessed by a Holy person of the religion the worshipped.

26 May 1947, following the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the death penalty was abolished.

On 12 January 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR passed a decree re-instating the death penalty. Between October 1950 and July 1952, 182 people sentenced to death were executed at Vilnius NKGB–MGB internal prison.
Their place of burial is still not known.

After July 1952 to 1961 executions continued pursuant to the 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR.
The burial place of these victims is still unknown.

The 1926 Criminal Code Article 58 of RSFSR was terminated in 1961 but executions continued.
The burial place of these victims is still unknown

Dear readers we would like to find where these people are buried, recover their bodies, give them the dignified burial they never received and have them blessed by a Holy person of the Religion they worshipped.

This is where we need your help. The NKVD and NKGB–MGB officers that oversaw these executions are now all dead. What ever records and documents which still exist are most likely locked away in a vault somewhere in the Russian Federation and it would seem highly unlikely that anyone in the Russian Federation would be kind enough allow access to these documents and records so that we could find out the location of the burial sites or simply tell us where these people are buried.

We know that there are people out there that know the location of some of these burial sites. Maybe it is a person that processed the documents, maybe it is some one that was just a rank and file soldier that was ordered to drive the truck that transported the bodies or was ordered to dig the trenches for the graves, maybe it is a colleague of one of these people or maybe it is the bartender that heard some of these people talk of it one night. The possibilities are endless.

Maybe none of these people with first hand knowledge of the burial sites are still alive. In that case we are sure that there are people out there with second hand or even third hand information. To have first hand knowledge of these executions would weigh very heavily on any civilized person’s heart and it is very possible that after carrying this weight inside them for many years they finally felt the need to free themselves from this burden they carried inside and told some one.

If you have any information at all, any information of any kind – Please tell us.

It is not important to us how you know, who it was, what they did or who told you.

None of this is important.

The only thing that is important is that we find where the executed people are buried.

This is all we care about.

What we want to do is best explained in the words from Bronius Eiva’s farewell letter he wrote to his wife while waiting his execution while in the prison of Ukmergės Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs.

“Please find out when I was shot or hanged and where they bury me.
Dig me up and take me to Šeta cemetary.”

This is all we want to do – Find where they are buried, dig them up and then give them a proper burial but we can only do this with your help.

All information will be kept strictly confidential
We are not concerned with who or what
We are only concerned with where these people are buried

If you have any information of any kind please contact:

The Memorial Complex of Tuskulenai Peace Park
Žirmūnų Gatvė 1F,
LT-09239, Vilnius
Lithuania

Telephone: +370 5 275 1223
E-mail. tuskulenai@genocid.lt

You can also contact me at vkvilnius-tuskulenai@yahoo.com

We sincerely thank you for your help.

Su pagarbe
Vincas Karnila

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