Vilnius Belarusian Museum enriched with a collection from a Belarusian emigration figure
Dozens of boxes with the personal collection and archive of Yury Popka — a Belarusian activist who, after World War II, established a private Belarusian museum in Leimen, Germany — have been delivered to the Ivan Lutskievich Vilnius Belarusian Museum.
"We have received many, many new exhibits with a very non-trivial history. They came to us all the way from the German city of Leimen, where they were collected by Belarusian expat Yury Popka (1912-1990). Mr. Popka took care of his legacy — he bequeathed his property to the city for a museum.
However, as a new generation of Belarusians in Germany discovered, the collection was carelessly moved to a warehouse where some exhibits disappeared without a trace, some were damaged by a flood, and now it was necessary to save what remained. This rescue mission has been carried out for almost ten years, since 2017, by Ales Maiseenka, to whom we are very grateful for his care and work. We also sincerely thank the association of Belarusians in Germany RAZAM eV, who helped transport the collection to Vilnius. Long months of processing this collection await us, and we will gradually tell you what has arrived in these boxes," reports the Ivan Lutskievich Vilnius Belarusian Museum on its Telegram channel.
Yury Popka was born in Pruzhany region in 1912. During the German occupation, he headed the labor and social welfare department in Pruzhany, led a department of the Belarusian Committee, and opened several Belarusian schools. From 1944, he lived in West Germany, participated in the emigration movement, belonged to the wing of the Belarusian Central Council, and published newspapers and magazines.
In 1971, he moved to Leimen, where he founded a Belarusian museum in his own apartment. The opening took place on March 15, 1982, with the participation of local Belarusians and the mayor of Leimen. Exhibits for it were collected from all over Germany: belts, clothes, bast shoes, spoons, dishes, books, periodicals.
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