The Silenced Muses: A Story About Life. Not Death.

By Neringa Daniene and Laima Vincė

In 1940 the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. June 12 - 14, 1941, deportations of Lithuania's intellectuals, merchants, tradesmen, military officers, and teachers to Siberia began. On June 22, 1941, the Nazis invaded and occupied Lithuania. The Jews of Lithuania were targeted in both occupations and were the victims of both Soviet and Nazi ideology. In the farming community of Panemunelis, a 19-year-old young poet named Matilda Olkinaite was arrested by the Nazis along with her family. She did not survive. And yet, by a miracle her poems and her diary did. Matilda's father, the town pharmacist, Noah Olkinas, managed to pass on Matilda's notebook of poems and diary to his close friend, the Catholic priest, Father Juozapas Matelionis. He hid Matilda's writing inside the altar of the Panemunelis church. Soon afterwards, the Soviets arrested Father Matelionis and deported him to Siberia. Decades later the poems and diary were found and Matilda's voice has come back to us again. This is a documentary play written by Neringa Daniene and translated by Laima Vince is based on Matilda's diary, poetry, eye witness accounts, and the testimonies of Matilda's friends, who still remember her more than half a century later.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1729488137
• ISBN13: 9781729488133
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 60 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"