1941 Vilnius captured

July 9, 1941. Deutsche Wochenschau No. 566.On the Lithuanian front. In the area near Kovno (Kaunas) the Soviets had arranged strong units for their planned offensive towards the West. German troops move forward. The battle for Kalvaria. In their retreat, the Soviets have taken the opportunity to burn everything. Stalin has ordered the Soviets to set aflame and destroy towns and villages upon the advance of the German troops. By doing so, the retreating Bolsheviks have become nothing more than arsonists. The next goal is Vilna. Artillery struggles to free the road to Vilna, which the Soviets have blocked with armour. An advance unit goes bypasses the road in order to cut off the Soviets from the rear. The road is reached again. The Bolsheviks have been cleared out. A Soviet tank is destroyed. The crew wanted to give themselves up. The road to Vilna is open once more. The infantry have marched incredible distances day after day. Outside of Vilna. The Lithuanian population greets our soldiers with joyful enthusiasm for having been liberated. The Soviets have been forced to evacuate the city. Life returns to normal in Vilna, shortly after the entry of our troops.

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• Vilna
• Vilnius
• Lithuania
• Operation
• Barbarossa
• World
• War
• II
• Wehrmacht
• USSR
• Soviet
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• German
• Army
• 1941

[polishranger]

@renygma that's alright. my grandmother was just a few months shy of being 90. let us all live such a long life. vilnius is in my blood but i can't wait for the time when vilnius will become the city of brotherhood between poles and lithuanians.

[renygma]

@polishranger I‘m sorry for your grandmother. May she rest in peace. Maybe somewhere in heavens God gave her eternal Wilno... and nobody will ever take it away from her.... I‘m sure someday you will visit Vilnius. I see you know about the city much more than common pole or lithuanian. So Vilnius is your town. It waits for you.

[renygma]

@polishranger In the past (40-50 years ago) it was different. For example my grandmother sometimes tells how she participated in wedding celebration near Kėdainiai (Nevėžis river, north from Kaunas) and was very angry that everybody aroud spoke only in polish. But now it‘s impossible to make polish as national language. For our nationalists it could be more horrible than to drink bear with Pilsudski and Zeligowski at the same table.

[renygma]

Now polish language is not popular in Lithuania. Except a few districts near Vilnius. My polish is zero. I don‘t know any my friend (lithuanian) who could speak polish. Such is real situation. Of course some older people (including president Grybauskaite, politicians like Landsbergis) can speak,

[renygma]

@polishranger No, it‘s propoganda. Polish public use of their language is not criminalized. I don‘t understand why politicians don‘t want let them write polish street names or polish surnames in passports, but on the whole it‘s good to be a pole in Lithuania. All education of polish schools (except some lessons ) is in polish language. There are more polish schools in Lithuania than in any other country. And so on.

[polishranger]

@renygma she died almost a year ago but i haven't seen her since july 2001. i always thought that i will travel to poland and will take my grandmother to her beloved wilno. i always wanted to see the places she told me so much about when i was a child. oh well... it will never happen. her brothers (my mom's uncles) are deceased too. my all connections to vilnius are dead.

[polishranger]

@renygma she was born in vilnius when vilnius was the capital of zeligowski's republic of central lithuania. her parents were lithuanian and polish speaking lithuanians and she was a POLISH PATRIOT. she loved pilsudski (who even had tea in my great grandfather's restaurant). she taught me polish patriotism but she never said a bad word about lithuanians. to my grandmother it was obvious that vilnius should be polish. that's how twisted the lithuanian history is.

[polishranger]

@renygma i went for a walk with my mom last month and we were talking about lithuania. my mom told me that my grandmother's mother spoke lithuanian as her first language. so my grandmother was at least half lithuanian. but she couldn't speak lithuanian at all. her first husband (died either before or at the beginning of the war) was lithunian speaker too. here's the funny thing about my grandmother:

[polishranger]

@renygma that division still exists today. look at polish speaking lithuanians. even now they are being told that they are just polish (i think they are both polish and lithuanian at the same time), public use of their language is criminalized. it's really sad. i think polish in eastern lithuania should be an official language and even as far as the whole republic of lithuania, polish should be the second official language. polish as the language a lof of lithuanians speak at home.

[polishranger]

@renygma if you had a plebiscite in the whole area of today's lithuania you would get some votes for rzeczpospolita and some votes for separate lithuania in every part of the land. you would find some pro rzeczpospolita votes in kaunas, you'd find some pro lithuania votes in vilnius. it wasn't a clean cut. and if you had that vote in 1918 you'd get different results than in let's say 1926. both population became very polarized.