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A monumental journey through Baltic history and culture, in which we encounter well-known personalities and forgotten ones, and a disconcerting picture of Europe in the twentieth century.
From 1999 to 2010, Jan Brokken explored life stories in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The result was his masterly Baltic Souls, available here for the first time in English. Brokken uncovered the stories of famous artists and writers such as Mark Rothko, Sergei Eisenstein, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Lipchitz, who were all born in the regions bordering the Baltic Sea before leaving to build their work abroad, spreading a bit of the Baltic soul across Europe and America.
Less well known were the stories of people such as the Rozes and their family bookstore in Riga, or the von Wrangels, the ultimate descendants of the Baltic barons. Or the story of the titanic struggle that violist Gidon Kremer fought with his father in Riga, who was burdened by the death of thirty-five family members in concentration camps. Or the story of Loreta Asanavičiūtė, who was run over by a Russian tank in 1991.
It is this melancholy imbued with fatalism, this vitality forged by the upheavals of history, this appetite for reading, music, and art, that enriches the portraits painted by Jan Brokken.
Conducted in the style of a travel diary where chance encounters and biographical sketches mingle, Baltic Souls makes us feel the cruelty and violence of an era, but also the tenderness and solidarity of an entire people, united across borders.
“A closely observed study of a region often overlooked, but of critical importance in world history … A learned, literate travelog about a cultural cornucopia.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Baltic Souls is made up of fifteen stories of repression and liberation, each following a life or set of lives begun, or played out, in these south-eastern countries of the Baltic Sea … Jan Brokken is a very good storyteller. He has an eye for detail, and his adventures and probings hold the reader’s attention”
—Evelyn Juers, Sydney Review of Books
Praise for The Just:
“If I had known Jan Zwartendijk’s story before, I would have had filmed that.”
—Steven Spielberg
“He [Zwartendijk] filled desperate lives with hope during a period of great darkness, and his actions will remain a beacon of decency and righteousness for generations to come.”
—Bill Clinton
“The Just documents a rescue operation to save Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Lithuania … Deep dives into archives, and documented encounters with people who were involved in the operation, contribute to a strong narrative about ordinary people performing extraordinary deeds at great risk to their personal safety. The lives of some of the people who were saved are chronicled, as are the struggles of Zwartendijk’s family and friends to have him officially recognized for his work on behalf of Jewish people, an experience of which he was robbed during his own lifetime. In telling the life story of Jan Zwartendijk, The Just adds one more piece to the memory of the Holocaust.”
—Foreword Reviews, starred review
“Stories of extraordinary acts of bravery and heroism continue to come out of WWII, and Dutch author Brokken’s recently translated work is no exception. His extensive research and interviews form the story of Jan Zwartendijk … Along with the Japanese consul in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, they were able to save as many as 10,000 Jewish families (possibly more). They could have both been seriously punished or killed if their superiors or the invading Russians or, later, Nazis discovered their deeds … Weaving their stories, along with those of Jewish families rescued through the use of these visas, is remarkable for both the storytelling and the depth of research the author has undertaken to bring it to a wider audience.”
—Lucy Röhrig, Booklist
CONTENTS
1
Pride:
Jakobson’s Daughter
Estonia, September 1999
2
The Bookseller of Riga:
Jānis Rose and sons
Latvia, January 2007
3
The Architect’s Shoes:
Eisenstein vs Eisenstein
Latvia, February 2007
4
The Will of the Father:
Kremer vs Kremer
Latvia, March 2007
5
What Made the Chameleon Burst:
Roman Kacew from Vilné
Lithuania, March 2009
Eisenstein vs Eisenstein
Latvia, February 2007
6
The Child Who Paid the Price:
Loreta Asanavičiūtė from Vilnius
7
A Neighbourhood of Composers:
Saulė Gaižauskaítė’s younger years
Lithuania, April 2010
8
Copulation in Bronze:
Lipchitz’s scream
Lithuania, August 2009
9
Hannah Arendt’s City:
Königsberg
Kaliningrad, May 2009
10
The Baltic Baroness:
on old families and stubborn prejudices
Lithuania, March 2009;
Courland, February 2007
11
The Start of an Unknown Adventure:
in the light of Mark Rothko
Latvia, April 2009
12
Tabula Rasa:
in search of Arvo Pärt
Estonia, December 2009
13
Exiled from Mõisamaa:
the fate of Anna-Liselotte von Wrangel
Estonia, February 2010
14
From the Drainpipe to the National Archives:
a walk through Tallinn
Estonia, December 2009
15
Simm:
the man who caved
Estonia, January 2010
Acknowledgements
Photo Credits
Sources
Translation Credits