The Museum of Deportation & Resistance documents Lithuania’s struggles with foreign oppression, between 1940 and 1990. The spirit of resistance was encompassed by the partisan Forest Brothers, who fought against Soviet occupation. Led by Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas (1909–54), 100,000 men went into Lithuania’s forests to battle the tyrannical regime. One third was killed, and the rest captured and deported. Fighting continued until 1954, when the last partisan was shot.
The museum’s exhibits, display cases and texts recount the suffering inflicted by the KGB on the country. Mass deportations to forced labour camps, persecution, arrests, torture and executions were all part of their repertoire. One of the most compelling stories told is that of the Forest Brothers, partisan resistance fighters who kept up an armed resistance in the face of overwhelming odds against the occupying Soviet army. Until 1953 they demonstrated their love for their country in a heroic but hopeless struggle, trying to show the world that they did not accept this invasion. Also explored in some detail are the actions of peaceful resistance, of women and priests imprisoned for publishing anti-Soviet pamphlets. The Soviet Armed Forces referred to the partisan resistance as ‘The Invisible Front’ and this is the name of a 2014 film that tells the story of the Forest Brothers, which tells the story of Juozas Luksa, one of the leaders of the Forest Brothers.