Knygnešių sienelė, Memorial monument in Kaunas, Lithuania
Knygnešių sienelė is a granite wall in the Vytautas the Great War Museum garden that displays about one hundred names on three panels. These individuals were involved in distributing and protecting Lithuanian literature against censorship efforts.
The memorial was built in 1940 but Soviet authorities demolished it in 1950 because it opposed their control of literature. It was reconstructed in 1997 to honor the resistance movement against censorship.
The wall honors people who risked their safety to share books and keep Lithuanian literature alive when authorities tried to suppress it. It shows how ordinary individuals became guardians of knowledge and language during difficult times.
The memorial sits in the War Museum garden and is easy to find when visiting the museum grounds. It helps to allow time to read the names and understand their meaning to local history.
Each name carved on the wall underwent careful verification to ensure accurate historical records were preserved. This thorough documentation during reconstruction made it a trustworthy memorial with authentic information about those honored.
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