My mother, a refugee

Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner, tells us about his mother's story as a refugee.

28/10/2018

My mother, a refugee. Should the judgement of a crowd prevail once again?

 

A few weeks ago while I was in Vienna for a series of meetings with European health Ministers, I visited an exhibition in Vienna’s city museum called: “What Remains: Traces of Refugees” and where objects of a few people who flew war, genocide, persecution and poverty in 20th century were exposed.

While I was there, I could not help but think about my mother. She was born in 1909, in Kaunas, part of Tsarist Russia back then. She was only 5 years old when World War I began. Her parents were forced to abandon their home in Kaunas and fly to Moscow. In a blink of an eye, they became refugees. As they fled, my mother lost her father and her older brother. And as they were returning back on foot from Moscow to Lithuania, my dear mother learnt to live with hunger, misery, sickness, orphan hood, beggary. She was a refugee girl as many others, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Russians…

In 1941, my family was forced to go through yet another exile. They were deported from Lithuania to the Laptev Sea Region and my mother had to endure hunger, cold and sickness once again. Yet another sufferance was less visible. The pain of having a label of “fascists” given to them by the Communist regime was equally acute. 

For me it was somewhat different. In the Tit-Ary barracks we, children, Lithuanians, Karelians, Latvians, Ukrainians, Jews, Russians, Estonians, were raised and played together. We did not see any difference.  We did not need any labels. Only later, when my parents were allowed to leave the barracks and moved to the southwest of Yakutia, I could remember people calling us “fascists”. Later on, when we came back to Lithuania, I recall local children mocking and bullying us, DIFFERENT kids who came from Gulags. I could not understand. After all, I was not different. I was back “home with our own”.

The exhibition in Vienna and Chemnitz, my mother and my own experience are forcing me to raise my voice again and again.

The roots of this behaviour lie in ideology and propaganda, they are behind the crowds shouting “Heil Hitler”, “za Stalin”, “Mao, Mao, Dan zi Bao”. Result of this was terrible: millions suffered, were exiled or assassinated.

In early September, in Chemnitz, a frenzy and accusative crowd was shouting again. All refugees are the same. Should the judgement of a crowd prevail?

I sigh. One would think that we, Europeans, have learnt our lessons and should be able to activate memories in our brains and know better where this can lead: hatred, deportations, Gulags, Auschwitz, and all based on radical ideologies, mixed with incitement against the one who is different, foreign, and amalgamated with escalation of violence and fear. This is a Molotov cocktail against humanity with severe consequences.

The exhibition in Vienna and Chemnitz, my mother and my own experience are forcing me to raise my voice again and again. The court of crowd has no future. The only path it could take us on is the one that leads to new conflicts. Are these our values? My answer is no. These are warnings to one and all that we are standing at some very dangerous crossroads.

Find all related publications
Publications
21/09/2023

A European Health Union

A blueprint for generations
18/09/2023

Making trade work for prosperity, people and planet

FEPS Primers series - Arancha González and Yanis Bourgeois
14/09/2023

SDGs for all: Strategic scenarios

Earth4All system dynamics modelling of SDG progress
07/09/2023

European perceptions of public programmes for zero unemployment

Online survey and qualitative interviews: The results
Find all related news
News
20/09/2023

FEPS is recruiting 1 project officer

Notice of vacancy
14/09/2023

FEPS President at the SDG Summit and United Nations General Assembly in New York

FEPS President Maria João Rodrigues is in New York this week on the occasion of […]
14/09/2023

Call for tender – Researcher on inflation

Basic Information Project    The profits-prices spiral: measures to avoid inflation  Partners   TASC (Ireland), Pietro Nenni Foundation (Italy)  […]
12/09/2023

Call for tender – Research and analysis for the project “Progressive paths to rebuild Ukraine”

Basic Information Project Research “In search of a ‘lost generation’. Harnessing youth potential for post-war […]
Find all related in the media
In the media

‘SDG funding gap swells to $137trn’ New Policy Study from FEPS, together with Earth4All, to deliver a five-point plan for the SDGs.

by Edie 19/09/2023
The “SDGs for All” report emphasises that policymakers have the potential to significantly advance SDG implementation by the original 2030 deadline and beyond by enacting five “extraordinary turnarounds” that break away from current trends.

“Trade doesn’t work in isolation from good domestic policies” Interview to Arancha González

by Borderlex 19/09/2023
Interview to Arancha González, former Spanish foreign minister, who released together with FEPS the new book entitled 'The Trade Handbook: Making Trade Work for Prosperity, People and Planet'

AI to ‘determine course of global trade, jobs’ in near future

by The Financial Express 14/09/2023
The Financial Express's article focuses on the publication of FEPS Primer on Trade written by Arancha González Laya and Yanis Bourgeois

Un nuevo informe de prospectiva identifica las medidas políticas urgentes necesarias para volver a encarrilar los ODS

by Cope 14/09/2023
'New foresight report identifies urgent policy measures needed to get the SDGs back on track' Cope's article on the policy study 'SDGs for all: Strategic scenarios', published in collaboration with Earth4All