A lucky escape at Kyushur [Stories from Siberia continued]
A LUCKY ESCAPE AT KYUSYUR
[ Stories from Siberia continued]
[Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K]
In the summer of 1943, my sister Victoria and some other female exiles from our settlement were sent to work in a fish salting co-operative not far from us. Their job was to salt the fish, then fill and mark the barrels. When all the barrels were full, they delivered them to the boats nearby for distribution to other Siberian settlements. It was not an easy task. Whilst the women were toiling to roll the barrels onto the boats, one of the boat’s captains probably felt sorry for Victoria because she was such a petite woman .He slyly suggested to her that she could sleep warmly inside his boat at night. Although Victoria was suspicious about the captain’s ulterior motives, she explained to him very tactfully, that she didn’t want to be treated differently from the other Lithuanian exiles and unfortunately she was unable to accept his kind offer.
Thankfully, the captain accepted Victoria’s explanation, but he could have made life extremely difficult for her and our family if she’d been impolite about his ‘offer of assistance’. So Victoria continued to sleep in a tent on the banks of the Lena River with the other exiles, even though it was quite cold at night even in summer. When she returned home and told us about her predicament, mother and I heartily approved of Victoria’s clever response. We understood perfectly, that once any of us accepted this sort of ‘help’, that we would be shunned by our fellow Lithuanian exiles.
[ Stories from Siberia continued]
[Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K]
In the summer of 1943, my sister Victoria and some other female exiles from our settlement were sent to work in a fish salting co-operative not far from us. Their job was to salt the fish, then fill and mark the barrels. When all the barrels were full, they delivered them to the boats nearby for distribution to other Siberian settlements. It was not an easy task. Whilst the women were toiling to roll the barrels onto the boats, one of the boat’s captains probably felt sorry for Victoria because she was such a petite woman .He slyly suggested to her that she could sleep warmly inside his boat at night. Although Victoria was suspicious about the captain’s ulterior motives, she explained to him very tactfully, that she didn’t want to be treated differently from the other Lithuanian exiles and unfortunately she was unable to accept his kind offer.
Thankfully, the captain accepted Victoria’s explanation, but he could have made life extremely difficult for her and our family if she’d been impolite about his ‘offer of assistance’. So Victoria continued to sleep in a tent on the banks of the Lena River with the other exiles, even though it was quite cold at night even in summer. When she returned home and told us about her predicament, mother and I heartily approved of Victoria’s clever response. We understood perfectly, that once any of us accepted this sort of ‘help’, that we would be shunned by our fellow Lithuanian exiles.
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