The oral histories excerpted on the prison museum walls reminded me of those in the KGB prison in Vilnius. For these people the Nazi time was just one phase in decades of Soviet terror.
I wrote in the visitors‘ book that I thought „three occupational regimes: Polish, Nazi and Soviet“ was phrasing that Poles may have an alternate view of.
Political prisons I’ve visited in Germany, Austria, and Lithuania have all appeared carefully curated. Here the halls and cells looked like they’d just been vacated recently.
There was a student with a #FreeSentsov banner outside the Polytechnic National University. I didn’t take his photo at the time because I didn’t want to look like the gawking tourist I was.
I’ve only included a few of the dozens of testaments on the museum walls. There’s a great breadth of experience documented. The thought and work evident in some museum exhibits contrasts sharply for me with the inanity of the news media I read and popular culture. I’m always taken with the range of ways it’s possible to react to mention of organizations like the OUN.
A Ukrainian leaflet-writing History student imprisoned and sentenced to death. „It’s difficult to look back, but I have to.“ Look at the strength on this man’s face.
