He has been compared to St. Maximilian Kolbe and called a martyr of the Titanic. Father Juozas Montvila was a 27 year-old priest from Lithuania who boarded the ill-fated liner as a second-class passenger headed for the United States, where he planned to minister to the growing Lithuanian immigrant community.

After the Titanic hit an iceberg on April 15, 1912, the priest surrendered his seat in the lifeboat to remain on the sinking ship and console those facing death and hear their confessions. This summer the self-sacrifice of the young priest was commemorated by children at Camp Neringa, a Lithuanian camp in southern Vermont. The children performed a play in the Lithuanian language about the sinking ship and the priest's actions.

The camp is operated by the Lithuanian sisters of the Immaculate Conception based in Putnam, Connecticut. It offers children of Lithuanian heritage a place to learn about their history, culture and traditions along with their Catholic faith. The camp served 110 campers ages 7 to 16 from the United States, Canada and Lithuania during the July session when the Titanic skit was performed.

The campers dressed in period clothes and crammed into a makeshift lifeboat while others lay drowning on a blue tarp in front of one of the camp's buildings. Most on the lifeboats were first-class passengers, while most who drowned were from steerage. Records indicate that when the Titanic went down after hitting an iceberg, about 1,500 people, many of them third-class passengers, perished and only 700 were saved. The ship had insufficient lifeboats and those put into the water were not filled to capacity.

Sister Igne Marijosius, a Neringa board member and a former camp director, said, "It was incredible for the children to learn that there was a Lithuanian priest on the Titanic who gave up his life for others. It's important to know that one of our countrymen was there and part of the experience the world is talking about (because of the movie) and that he gave up his life," she said in an interview. Wearing a white alb and green stole, Ginta Adomkaitis, a 14-year-old from Milton, Massachusetts, portrayed Father Montvila. Two campers covered in a white blanket portrayed the iceberg and crashed into a porch that symbolized the ship. Those portraying passengers thrashed about trying to keep their balance.

When the priest was offered a seat in the lifeboat, he declined, offering it instead to the camper portraying the young woman who later credited the priest with saving her life.

Later, speaking English, young Ginta said he had not heard of the priest until he came to the camp, but now he is one of the boy's heroes because "He fulfilled his duty to God to help others."

Born in 1885, Father Montvila was the youngest of 10 children. He studied in Marijampole, Lithuania and at the seminary of Seinai before being ordained in 1908.

After ordination, Father Montvila worked in Lipskas as a book and Catholic newspaper illustrator while ministering to the spiritual needs of Eastern rite Catholics being persecuted by the czarist regime and forced to worship in secret. Later, he was forbidden to work as a priest in Lithuania. He decided to emmigrate so he could minister to Lithuanians in the United States. Some reports indicate he was headed to Brooklyn, others that he was going to Worcester, Mass.

Father Montvila's body was never recovered. He is considered a hero in Lithuania.

This article was sent to Labas by Vytautas Sliupas. His attached note is quoted.

Battle of Grunwald

At the Jagiellonian University library in Krakow this summer, I found a 1960 article, written in Polish by Krystyna Sroczynska, whose title translated into English as:

Since this 1410 battle, where the combined Lithuanian-Polish armies and their allies defeated the mightiest Teutonic army of that time and stopped the Germanic "Drang nach Osten" for 500 years, is of great interest to Lithuanians Both leaders of the combined armies, Grand Duke Vytautas the Great [Witold in Polish] and King Jogaila [Jagiello or Wladyslaw in Polish], were not only Lithuanians, but first cousins as well. I present to the readers the summary, which was in English.

The Battle of Grunwald never belonged to the favorite historical subjects of Polish painters. After great research, wood-cuts and drawings, a few of them original, a few photographic copies of reproductions, were located. The earliest representations of the Battle can be found in old chronicles of the 15th and 16th century, both foreign and Polish. There are miniatures, drawings and wood-cuts.

After a considerable interval, this subject reappeared in the Age of Enlightenment when, on the initiative of King Stanislaw Poniatowski, the modern historical painting began to come into existence. Scenes connected with the Battle of Grunwald were then painted by F. Smuglewicz and J. Peszka. Engravers became interested in this subject as well. Classicism did not encourage the artists to choose Polish historical subjects.

We meet them again in about the middle of the 19th century when endeavors of the Polish nation to regain national and political freedom awaken a special interest in Polish history. Episodes of the Battle of Grunwald became the subject of the works of such painters as J. Damel, E. Suchodolski, F. Sypniewski, and J. Kossak.

It was Jan Matejko who creatively reflected on all the power and formidableness of the Grunwald victory. His masterpiece was created in such a suggestive way that even now, when we think of his painting, we see it through his eyes. The enormous painting (423x 987 cm), completed in 1878, enchants the spectator with its most suggestive historical authenticity. It is the most impressive of all the pictures representing great historical battles ever painted by a Polish artist. For a long time, no painter dared to take up this subject again.

Finally in 1910, on the 500th anniversary of the great event, a new interest in the Battle of Grunwald awoke. Of the pictures painted at that time, two fundamental subjects appear: the representation of the battle itself and the other at the triumph of the victors. Both subjects were used by the artists to manifest their patriotic feeling, to stress the importance of the great victory and to emphasize the glory of the Polish nation. Beside the pictures of S. Kaczor Batowski, W. Eliasz and J.E. v. Driesten, two panoramas were attempted at this time: by J and T. Styka and by Z. Rozwadowski and T. Popiel. The latter was finished in Cracow, the former remained in sketches. Only reproductions of all these pictures currently exist.

The subject of the Battle of Grunwald, after having interested the painters on the occasion of its 500th anniversary, appeared very seldom in the works of the artists in the following years. Of the pictures painted during the period 1918-1939, the works of W. Kossak and K. Sichulski should be mentioned. Since WW II, no pictures on this subject have been painted.

Editor's Note: A list of 35 illustrations are given which is not reproduced here.

Beer was made to sell, some was made secretly. Home brew for personal use was allowed, those who had the knowledge would make beer for holidays, weddings and other occasions. Beer was first made from barley bread crusts, also from sugar beets. Quality beer was brewed from barley malt, barley sprouts were ground fine which resulted in a stronger and better tasting beer. malt was slowly poured in a tub, adding boiling water, well mixed forming a thin foam, hops (after a lengthy time of boiling) were added to the brew. To slow down the fermentation a few heated bricks were added. This process took about 12 hours. The brew was pored into a large vat which had a filter in the bottom. Spigots, carved from Black Alder trees, were inserted in the vat holes which were covered with bundles of straw. After the vats were prepared the malt was poured and kept about four hours. From the vat the malt was put into pails which were placed under the vats. The vats wee placed on a strong tripod, spigots were slowly opened and the malt flowed into the pails. After the mash reached a temperature of milk fresh from cows, yeast was added. Well covered, it would ferment for 24 hours.

The first batch of beer was of the best quality and the strongest. Boiling water was added to the mash for a second brew and a third brew. These batches were less palatable. Home brew was forbidden to be sold, but some residents made it to sell anyway.

Villagers would add sour cream, butter and salt to the heated beer, stir well and serve with sweetened bread in place of soup.

Her friends circle the globe, but they all know her as "Mama."

Alexandra "Mama" Gylys, a 76-year-old Olympia woman with soft features and dancing dark eyes, has spent much of her life helping others. She's known in Thurston County for her charitable work and as owner of Lee's Restaurant on Martin Way.

But she's known in Israel as the woman who risked her life during World War II to hide her Jewish neighbors from the invading German soldiers.

The government of Israel recently recognized Mama Gylys for her life-saving contribution and awarded her a medal. The government also planted a tree in her name along the Avenue of the Just, outside the Yad ve Shem Memorial in Jerusalem.

Gylys is proud of the medal and the tree, but the memories of 135,000 Lithuanian Jews who lost their lives at the hands of the German Gestapo still sadden this warm, quiet woman.

"I hate to remember -- it was horrible," she says of the still vivid memories of World War II.

Families she hid in her home now live in Israel. They petitioned their government to recognize Mama Gylys. Because of ill health, she sent her son-in-law, Tony Minelga, to Israel last November to retrieve the medal and take photographs of the shrine and growing fir tree.

She clutches the medal and its olive wood box closely, but is unaccustomed to displaying her award to strangers.

This private woman does things out of kindness not for reward, says Stu DeLaney, a close family friend.

Alexandra Gylys was born in Illinois to Lithuanian-born parents. When she was 3 years old, her family returned to Lithuania, a small country of 3 million people, which today is part of the western Soviet Union border, north of Poland on the Baltic Sea.

At 18, Alexandra married Leon Gylys and together they operated a grocery store and meat market in the town of Raseiniai.

In that town of 14,000, Mama Gylys, a Catholic, had many Jewish friends. She spoke their language.

"When Hitler come, he start the concentration camps and he lock the Jews up," she recalls. One camp was less than 10 miles from town, and it was easy for a young woman to see the prisoners' suffering.

"Lots of Lithuanian people killed," she says. "It very danger, very danger. Nobody tell us for what they killing Jews. Crazy Hitler -- can't find answer, why kill Jews. No right to ask him -- cause you go the other way. I hate to remember," she says shaking her head.

Many Jews, fearful of the camps and death, sought refuge.

Mama and her husband hid three families, keeping them out of sight until they could be safely moved out of the country. In addition to feeding, clothing and hiding Jewish family members, Mama Gylys and her husband arranged for their transportation to other homes and eventually out of the country.

She remembers: "We feel danger. Gestapo come in night. They look all over in your house.

You hide in house, in room. They looking, looking -- everywhere. They shake the whole house."

DeLaney says, "The penalty for helping others escape would have been the firing squad for Mama and her family and possibly for the entire village -- as was the custom of the SS troops."

In 1944 with the Germans on the run and the Russians invading Lithuania from the east, Mama Gylys fled. She settled in Chicago in 1948, working as a cook. She eventually earned enough money for her family to join her.

Mama, her husband, son Paul and daughter Aldona (Minelga) owned a small restaurant in back of the stockyards. They moved to Seattle in 1960 and a year later purchased Lee's Restaurant. The Gylys family moved to Olympia in 1962, the same year Leon died.

Mama still spends seven days a week working at the restaurant, mostly in the kitchen.

"I still go like bee," she says with a smile.

Over the years many members of the families that Mama helped escape to Israel have visited her in Olympia. It was last August when those family members, some of them in the second and third generation, convinced the Israeli government to give Mama Gylys special recognition.

"I don't expect this. It was long time ago. When you do -- you forget it. But medal is nice, very nice," she says.

Her son-in-law, Tony Minelga, said a mix-up in the notification sent him to Israel in November (11-10) to pick up the medal, when the actual tree planting ceremony was in October (10-11). When he got there, the Israeli government wouldn't give him the medal.

So special was the award, that a government official sent a telegram to Mama in Olympia seeking her permission to give the medal to her son-in-law. She, of course, immediately wired back her approval.

The heavy two-inch-wide medal, bears an inscription that reads, "He who saves one life, saves the world."

The inscription on the tree-planting proclamation recognizes Alexandra Gylys for her humanitarian effort "in peril of her own life to save the Jews during the holocaust."

"Mama maintains a great humanitarian existence," DeLaney says. "Mama still sends packages of clothing to Lithuania and money to the needy in Poland. She's active and supportive of her church and provides much assistance to local charitable and human organizations.

"She helps a lot of people," Minelga says. "She's a good human being."

Mama shrugs off the praise.

"It's in life, what you do, that important," she says.

The Olympian, front page, Sunday, January 4, 1984

(Mama Gylys was awarded the highest honour a non-Jew can be decorated with by the state of Israel, a medal and certificate signifying she is Righteous of the nations, and a place for a tree in her honour in Jerusalem. She also was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg medallion, along with another local Olympian woman, Helen Pope, formerly of Brussels and Vevey, Switzerland. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of about 100,000 Jews in Hungary. Wallenberg was abducted by the Russians at the end of the war. Mama Gylys' restaurant is closed now, but she goes on with her work.)

Editor's Note: A quote that we have often seen or heard comes to mind after reading this story [hope I have it correct] from a Protestant minister in Germany during the war:

"First they came for the communists and I didn't say anything because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the socialists and I didn't say anything because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak up for me."

VALKENBURG, Netherlands (AP): Diana Ziliute, a 22-year-old Lithuanian, surprised the veterans to capture the women's elite road race Saturday at the World Cycling Championship.

Ziliute, who won the world junior title in 1994, captured the final sprint over 28-year-old Leontien van Moorsel of the Netherlands, who won the time trial title on Wednesday. German Hanka Kupfernagel finished third.

Ziliute's time was 2 hours, 35 minutes, 35 seconds. She rides for an Italian team and has lived in Italy near Venice for three years.

``But, of course, for the world championships, I am Lithuanian,'' Ziliute said in fluent Italian.

The defending champion, 30-year-old Alessandra Cappellotto of Italy, was fifth.

It seems the Chechens have officially claimed Grodis is not in Chechnya.

There is something happening behind the scenes. It's possible the hostage died. Sadly. The British and Swedish hostages have been released. The Hungarian, I hear, had his nose cut off.

I received mysterious letters from a woman in Sweden for a while asking about him and the basement of the Lietuvos viesbutis in Vilnius. I passed that along to Lietuvos rytas. Their new webpage system makes it hard to figure out what's up with Grodis. I'll be in touch.

1. Education for all? - the 5th Regional Monitoring Report
2. The TransMONEE database 3.0 - Download for free!

1. EDUCATION FOR ALL?

The MONEE project (Monitoring Public Policy and Social Conditions in Central and Eastern Europe) annual Regional Monitoring Report is a unique source of information on the social side of the transition taking place in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Each year's Report contains an update on the welfare of children and families in the region, together with an in-depth analysis of a topic of special focus.

The focus of this year's Report is education, a subject of vital importance for the welfare of children and for the development of the societies in the region. The Report covers a broad range of issues, including enrolment and other measures of access, learning achievement, schooling costs faced by families, education for children with special needs, early childhood development, and the decentralization of educational systems. The Report emphasizes the need for public policy to promote good education for all children and warns of growing inequalities in educational systems

2. FREE DATABASE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS FOR CEE/CIS COUNTRIES

The TransMONEE 3.0 is the public-use version of the economic and social indicators database from the MONEE project. The menu-driven database allows the retrieval and manipulation of economic and social indicators for 27 CEE/CIS countries. The program includes a guide and extensive table notes which are available on-line. This new release includes data updated through 1996, and provides a 32-bit Windows (tm) NT/95 user interface in addition to the Windows (tm) 3.1 version also available.

The database can be downloaded without cost from three different websites. For more information, access:

The people at Lithuanian Global Resources (a non-profit organization) have asked me if you would kindly consider publishing the following ad for them, which may be of interest to BALT-L readers also.