The President Valdas Adamkus Library/Museum and the publishing house Aukso žuvys launched historian Aurimas Švedas’s biography “Irena Veisaitė. Gyvenimas turėtų būti skaidrus” in Kaunas February 9. The author and the subject of his book attended. The discussion was moderated by professor Egidijus Aleksandravičius. A large number of readers including members of the Kaunas Jewish Community turned out for the meeting with one of the more remarkable modern Lithuanian cultural figures, professor Irena Veisaitė. Among the many subjects she addressed was her native city of Kaunas, which she said was “under her skin.”

The book details her life. Besides being a Holocaust survivor, professor Veisaitė is a German literature scholar, a theater expert and long served as the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Open Society Fund funded by Georg Soros. The conversations between the scholar of the past and the woman exploring her own experiences are grouped into four epochs: pre-war, first Soviet and Nazi occupations, the Soviet era and the independent Lithuanian period. The confrontation between history and memory brings to light the contours of professor Veisaitė’s life and lost images of Jewish Lithuania as well portraits of remarkable people she has met. It also resurrects fragments of legendary plays and significant utterances said and heard many decades ago.