Laisvės Ave. 3

Asija: “When the family got too big, we received a room in Laisvės Ave. 1A (currently Laisvės Ave. 3). The apartment had 5 rooms, each housing a different family. The rooms were separated by glass doors. Each side followed their own way of living. This “transparent’’ life continued for a long time, as covering the doors or building a wall were not affordable. Those doors made the apartment authentic and beautiful.”

“The apartment we lived in was large and elegant, but there were rats in it. These rodents got into the apartment through the sewers that were connected to the toilets. Dad told us that he used to stuff the toilets with shards of glass in order to block their entrance into the apartment, which were affected from this issue for a very long time. Every kitchen cabinet was being gnawed at by rats looking for food, despite them being empty – we lived very modestly. After some time, we finally managed to exterminate those rodents with poison. My friends mentioned that rats were a problem in many places in Kaunas. That was a sign of the post-war period.”

“A Jewish family lived next to us and Lithuanians above us. Most of the people there were of Russian origins. Despite the outward luxury, tenants were rather humble. We spoke Russian in the backyard and only allowed Russian speaking children into our circle of friends. Others tried to talk with us to the best of their ability but we felt significantly disconnected from them. We did not understand where we lived and there were people next to us that spoke Lithuanian. We thought that we lived in the Soviet Union, so everyone had to speak Russian and go to Russian schools.” (2017)

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