Falls Church resident, artist and Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation Vice President, Irena Chambers’ award winning exhibition “No Home To Go To: Baltic Displaced Persons, 1944-1952” will be on display at the Arlington Public Library (1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington) through April 17, 2017. The award-winning exhibit has been on display across the nation (NYC, Chicago, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Illinois) as well as Lithuania and Canada.
The exhibition uses the memories, documents, photographs, and memorabilia of families and individuals who lived through the experience of fleeing their homeland, living in displaced persons camps, and, finally, finding a new home in a new land.
The exhibit examines the experience of fleeing battle fronts and fearing persecution, as thousands of civilians attempted to reach asylum in neighboring countries. Families, many with small children, sought safety and a better life. They lived in makeshift communities where food and accommodations were minimal and relief difficult to come by.
Chambers says that the experience of people from 1944-1952 bares a striking resemblance to today’s refugee crisis and immigration experiences.
The exhibit shares what occurred more than 70 years ago, when displaced persons in Europe fled their homes and uprooted their lives in the last year of World War II, because of the approaching Soviet forces. Yet, Chambers says, it forces the viewer to examine more critically today’s current refugee crisis — the largest number of immigrants seeking freedom and liberty in America in more than 70 years.
