Rūta Vanagaitė

Rūta Vanagaitė (born January 25, 1955) is a Lithuanian theatre critic, writer, journalist and a public figure of Vilnius. She is mostly known for her efforts to raise public awareness about participation of Lithuanians in the Holocaust.

Rūta Vanagaitė

Biography

Vanagaitė was born on January 25, 1955 in Šiauliai. From 1961 to 1972 she studied in secondary school no. 22 in Vilnius.

In 1978 she graduated from the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts where she studied drama, and began publishing her theatre review articles before graduation. In 1978 she was appointed head of the theatre, cinema and TV section in Kultūros barai monthly magazine, and later worked at the Literatūra ir menas newspaper. From 1985 to 1989, she lived in Helsinki where she worked in the library of the University of Helsinki and wrote articles on social and cultural topics for Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.

In 1989, she returned to Lithuania and became the art director of the National Youth Theatre. Since 1991 she was organizing annually the international theatre festival LIFE. In 1999—2001 she was an advisor to prime minister Rolandas Paksas on culture and communication. In 2001 she founded a public relations agency Acta Publica. Since 2006, she is a director of Vilko valia agency.

In 2015, she met Efraim Zuroff who discussed with her the extermination of the Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust. This was the beginning of her work on writing the book Mūšiškiai. Kelionė su priešu (Our People. A Journey with the Enemy),[1] which was published a year later, and was translated into multiple languages (English, Polish, Russian, Hebrew). The book discusses the problem of participation of common Lithuanians in the execution of Jews and robbing of their property, a topic very much unpopular in the modern Lithuania. She was shunned by some of her relatives and friends after the publication of the book.[2]

She is currently working in cooperation with German historian Christoph Dieckmann on her new book about the Holocaust How Did It Happen?, which is expected to be published in 2020.[3]

Apart from her native Lithuanian, she is fluent in Russian, English, Finnish, Polish and French. Her heart friend is Efraim Zuroff, director of Israel Unite of Simon Wiesenthal Center.[4]

Selected publications
  • Pareigos metas. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2014. — 300 p.
  • Ne bobų vasara. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2015. — 166 p.
  • Jis. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2016. — 240 p.
  • Mūšiškiai (co-authored with Efraim Zuroff) – translated in various languages: Our People (English), Nasi (Polish) etc.

References
  1. "Свои. Путешествие с врагом". Corpus. August 20, 2019.
  2. "Из-за книги о геноциде евреев в Литве от автора отвернулись родные и друзья (Family and friends turned away from the author of a book about the genocide of Jews in Lithuania, in Russian)". Inosmi.ru, translated into Russian from the original publication at Delfi.lt. January 27, 2016.
  3. "Нет пророка в своём Отечестве. Интервью с Рутой Ванагайте (There is no prophet in the homeland: an interview with Ruta Vanagaite, in Russian)" (in Russian). Сноб (Snob). August 20, 2019.
  4. Atlydėjo širdies draugas
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