The exhibition titled 'No Home To Go To' opened March 7 at the Central Library and runs until April 17.
According to Library Director Diane Kresh:
“The show contributes to a clearer understanding of the World War II experiences while drawing incisive lessons for the current refugee crisis.”
The installation is the work of the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, with several other organizations, and includes artifacts examining various aspects of camp life — from the way refugees managed their schools and churches, organized sports and cultural events, to their struggles to find space, food and clothing.
The exhibition also reveals their resistance to attempts to repatriate them to the Soviet Union after it occupied the independent republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Latvia's ambassador to the United States, Andris Teikmanis, attended the opening of the exhibit alongside his counterparts from Estonia and Lithuania and described it as "moving".
Moving ceremony of the opening of exhibition at #Arlington Public Library about displaced persons from Baltic states, their life in DP camps pic.twitter.com/ZkURCsKlIj
— Andris Teikmanis (@teikmanis) March 8, 2017
Appropriately enough, the opening of the exhibition came on the same day Teikmanis addressed a Senate committee on the renewed threat faced by the Baltic states from Russia.
Baltic Ambassadors opened exhibition "No Home To Go" of Baltic displaced persons @ArlingtonVALib. History should never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/GdytkbLGqw
— Estonian Embassy US (@Estonia_in_US) March 7, 2017
