By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
Discovering an extended family she never knew led Geelong author Jura Reilly to pen a book about one of the most chilling chapters in history.
Ms Reilly’s A Wolf at Our Door chronicles the survival feat of a Lithuanian great-aunt and her two daughters when abruptly exiled to Siberia in World War II for 37 years.
A retired English teacher, Ms Reilly said she only made the connection after Lithuania’s education ministry invited her to present English workshops for teachers and students in 1991 and 1995.
“I ended up staying with a cousin because I had no idea I still had relatives in Lithuania. When I met them the story of their exile in Siberia gradually came out.
“Every time I’d see them they would tell me more and they ended up leaving me their memoirs in a jumbled exercise book.”
The story traces back to when an expanding Soviet Union was annexing satellite countries, using their populations as forced labour.
Ms Reilly said best estimates were that some 200,000 Lithuanians were deported, many dying in brutal -50C Arctic weather.
“Essentially it was ethnic cleansing, as we know it today. They were kept moving every few years, wherever the Soviets needed forced labour.”
Ms Reilly said the book began as translated excerpts called Stories from Siberia on an international language learning site, italki.com, where she was an informal tutor.
“Each week I’d post an episode online and it got a lot of response. The readers on the site suggested it should be compiled into a book.
“One website member translated the stories into Spanish and another into Chinese.
“Even the Russian people learning on the site didn’t know anything about this episode in their history.”
Ms Reilly said the book aimed to “bring to life the struggles of a forgotten generation of Lithuanian women who survived when so many others perished”.
Published under the auspices of Geelong Writers in association with Beach Shack Publications, A Wolf at Our Door is available from Paton Books.
The book will be launched at Chilwell Library at 7pm on 31 October.
