A Shtetl Love Song

Possibly more than any other book ever, Jewish  Grigoty Kanovich's story of his family in Jonova Lithuania - starting ten years before the outbreak of WW11 - is speaking to me so vividly, it's almost like being a fly on the wall in somebody's house. 

Some of these people could actually be my relations. 

Jonova, pronounced Yonova, is just 20 kms down the road from the farm where I’m staying for a week!

Jonova house revisited in 2019.

Shtlel Love Song is a book of 521 pages.  I'm now on page 449. The Russians have taken over the town. It's 1940. I can hardly bear to read what happens next. But I do.

I came here to make a pilgrimage to honour my never  met Jewish ancestors.

Then, when that felt complete, day by day as I learned of the countries relatively recent horrific history, I began to realise it was not just the Jews who’d suffered terribly.

The stories I've heard were from priests, nuns, Jews living here and in Moscow and Palestine.  Hotel receptionists, cafe owners, a Russian pharmacist,  a Lithuanian photographer turned organic farmer. All paint a picture of a country that has been reinventing itself over the last  24 years. 

Yes.  I became a researcher.  An investigator of  what lies behind what we see. As you have have guessed, I love to hear other  people's stories.

350.000 Lithuanians were exiled to Siberia to ‘work for’ the Soviet's. They lived in atrocious conditions.  

So far, I have met and talked to two survivors.  Both are in their late 80’s.

As late as 1985,  anti-communist university students were also sent to Siberia. Most have not returned.