Neringa Markevičienė
Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Balys Sruoga’s Letters from Stutthof: Themes, Aesopic Language, Creativity inside and outside of the Camp
Balys Sruoga (1886–1947) is famous in the Lithuanian literature as the author of Dievų miškas (Forest of the Gods), fictionalised memoirs from the Stutthof concentration camp (1943– 1945). This is Sruoga’s most important work written in post-war Lithuania, and one of the most original European memoirs about concentration camps. Sruoga’s work, characterised by a fusion of factual literature and artistic imagery, is written in the grotesque style – a kind of tragicomedy in prose. Dievų miškas uses humour, irony and sarcasm to describe the authentic experience of a person transformed into a number (21319) in the Stutthof concentration camp. The book’s narrator is a scholar of the system of the absurd, and so the work takes on a universal dimension, testifying to the totalitarian system as a whole, rather than one specific case. Sruoga’s letters, written in 1943–1945, are the only surviving egodocuments from the death camp, a kind of prologue to Dievų miškas.
Sruoga’s letters to his family, written in Stutthof, are life-affirming letters of exile, notable for their deliberate determination to endure difficult situations and fate, to survive in the absurd as an existential given, and to preserve his humanity. Their aim is to encourage and inspire the hope to live, and also to educate – to pass on the knowledge to his daughter and to the other pupils who have remained in Lithuania, while sharing his professional (theatrologist) experience, quests and discoveries, which would enrich the future Lithuania. Sruoga’s letters written in Stutthof are particularly relevant today because of their strong logotherapeutic effect. When faced with terrible conditions, they urge us to find the inner strength to bear all the trials of fate with patience.
Letters written in Stutthof, although simple in content, are exceptional in expression. They are full of symbols, metaphors, hints, and allusions – they are characterised by Aesopian language, which was not present in the letters written at other times.
In my presentation, I show how Sruoga’s letters were censored in the camp, and I explain the rules under which they were written. In addition, I seek to compare Sruoga’s letters with letters written by other Lithuanian prisoners of honour from Stutthof, as well as prisoners in other Nazi concentration camps, especially Auschwitz.
In my opinion, it would be important to include the egodocuments, letters and memoirs written by Lithuanian honorary prisoners in Stutthof in the digital platform being developed by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. At the moment, the only factual data available are the names, birth and death dates of the Lithuanian intellectuals who were imprisoned at Stutthof. This situation should be changed immediately, as the letters and memoirs of the Lithuanians who were imprisoned in Stutthof would be an important addition to the information already gathered about the Nazi concentration camps and the egodocuments written there.
