Participants of a Lithuanian-Polish seminar visited Wędziagoła

For the first time the Lithuanian-Polish seminar on ‘Endless reconstruction of nations throughout the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’ was organized in Lithuania. The meeting lasted for a week and took place at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas.

The aim of the seminar was to discuss the subject of the Lithuanian-Polish relations in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. The seminar comprised lectures, meetings, discussions with well-known academics, journalists, cultural and social activists, MA and doctoral students. The seminar was organized by the Jan Nowak–Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe (Wrocław), Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Czesław Miłosz Centre and Institute of Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

On Thursday afternoon, the seminar participants together with its organizers, Reader Rustis Kamuntavičius, the President of the College of Eastern Europe Andrzej Dąbrowski, the director of the National Centre ‘Memory and Future in Wrocław Marek Mutor and seminar representatives from Lithuania and Belarus came to Wędziagoła to meet and discuss with representatives of the local Polish community.

Many seminar participants have already heard or read about the history of Wędziagoła region as well as about its former and present inhabitants, that is why they were very interested to visit this place. The seminar participants spoke Lithuanian, Polish and Belorussian. They have enriched their historical knowledge.

Many seminar participants promised to come to Wędziagoła in summer. Starting from that particular place, they want to set off for a journey to the places described in the works of Czesław Miłosz and Henryk Sienkiewicz and meet with the local people and contemporary witnesses. In the end, the seminar participants promised to come back here again saying that they enjoyed everything here very much.

Ryszard Jankowski

chairman of the local branch of the Association of Poles in Lithuania

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2012/12/18/uczestnicy-litewsko-polskiego-seminarium-goscili-w-wedziagole/

Tłumaczenie Milena Jajkowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Milena Jajkowska the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.