This collection consists of material brought to the museum by people themselves or collected during expeditions. It contains photographs, and also some original documents and objects. It is constantly being supplemented. People who kept their or their relatives’ possessions from their places of deportation or prison have brought them to the museum in the belief that this is the only way of restoring them and keeping them properly.

Deportees clean a riverbed and the banks. Krasnoyarsk region, 1956

Documents. There are not many original documents in the collection, most of them are copies. They include orders to deport or to arrest people, certificates of confiscation of property, letters to relatives, etc. The museum also collects memoirs of deportees and political prisoners, and questionnaires about the conditions.

The railway ticket of O. Abariūtė-Abarienė from Taishet to Obeliai, 1956

Photographs. It was strictly forbidden to take pictures in camps or at places of deportation and to send them to friends or relatives in Lithuania before 1953 (until Stalin’s death). Especially rare are pictures from 1941, the most difficult year of deportation. Nevertheless, photographs are the main part of the collection. They display prisoners’ and deportees’ lives far away from their native land, their work, rare holidays, and their efforts not just to survive but also to keep national, cultural and religious traditions.

Objects. This is not a large part of the collection, but the exhibits are original, such as a suitcase made for the journey back to Lithuania, an album for pictures made from birch-bark, a cross-amulet made from the tusk of a mammoth, a rosary made from bread, embroidery, etc.

A heart-shaped box and a rosary made from bread