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Introduction - The Promised Land, Escape from Lithuania
There was a surge of emigrants from Lithuania to the promised lands of
America, and Britain in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Whether
their adoptive countries came up to their expectations is a moot point. How
could the city slums of London or the meat-packing factories of Chicago possibly compare
with the unpolluted and beautiful environment of the Lithuanian countryside?
The main considerations which drove them however were
economic, and the powerful need to achieve for their children more than would
have been possible at home in a country wanting in wealth and justice.
It is the year 1812 and a French army marches through Europe to attack Russia.
In Lithuania, a Russian province, the people try to remain on the sidelines
but the peasant Kadišius family is dragged into it. As the story unfolds revealing
the everyday lives of succeeding generations we understand what it meant to
live in this beautiful but poor, little known country occupied by an alien power.
Years later the peasants are still under the Russian yoke. Poverty, cruel persecution of
the Jews and the attempted erasure of Lithuanian culture forces an
Exodus from the country of Biblical proportions towards the West. It is a decision not easy for the migrants but one which many have
been forced to take.
In 1894 Elzbiėta, a farm girl, and her sister Juoza, are seeking something better.
They set out on their eventful journey through life, by road, train and ship.
Arriving in England, the country which has offered them sanctuary, Elzbiėta
is appalled to discover the teeming slums of London's Stepney, where she is
destined to live. The culture shock is great as she quietly battles to retain her
identity huddled together with others of her kind in the Lithuanian ghetto. She
and her family's trials, throughout the years, are mirrored by world events. They
fight against the odds armed with intelligence, humanity, honesty, and a religious
faith which is sometimes not without its contradictions. The family progresses
through Whitechapel, Hackney, Leyton and out into the Diaspora despite many
setbacks. Between them they make a huge difference to the lives of others. In
wartime and peace they are involved in major events as were their Lithuanian ancestors. This
story is about the striving of the human soul for something better.
Zillah Moody 2016