On November 24, the Partisans’ Song Festival “Laisvės kelias” (“Path of Freedom”) took place at the Druskininkai “Atgimimo” school.
The event started with a song, “Kada, mamyte, grįš tėvelis?” (“When will daddy come back, mommy”), performed by the teachers and students of the “Atgimimo” school. Saulius Lukošiūnas, a teacher and the Director of the Druskininkai Resistance and Exile Museum, who lead the event, recalled that the festival started more than ten years ago and thanked all those who supported the initiative.
Ronaldas Račinskas, Director of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, thanked Druskininkai “Atgimimo” school for its lively history lessons and its leaders – the former headmistress Danutė Časienė and the current headmistress Aušra Keturkienė. The Executive Director of the International Commission expressed his sincere thanks to Lijana Lukošiūnienė, Coordinator of the Tolerance Education Centre of the “Atgimimo” school, on whose initiative the festival was brought back to the school after a two-year break due to quarantine.
This year, 24 Lithuanian schools from Alytus, Ariogala, Balbieriškis, Daugai, Elektrėnai, Igliauka, Marijampolė, Pagėgiai, Sasnava, Švenčionys, Ukmergė, Varėna, Viečiūnai, Vilkaviškis, Vilnius and Druskininkai took part in the festival. The event featured both somber and cheerful songs telling the painful history of Lithuania during the Soviet occupation. The Druskininkai Choir of Exiles and Political Prisoners performed the song “Partizanų motinai” (“For the Mother of Partisans”).
The 12th Partisans’ Song Festival “Laisvės kelias” (“Path of Freedom”) was attended not only by a large number of students and teachers, former political prisoners, and exiles but also by guests from the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, the Druskininkai Municipality, and the representatives of the Druskininkai riflemen’s unit.
The event was organized by the Druskininkai “Atgimimo” school in cooperation with the Druskininkai Museum of Exile and Resistance and the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
Photos from „Mano Druskininkai“ and Druskininkai „Atgimimo“ school Facebook pages