Daiva’s Story

Roots & Inheritance

“In every conceivable manner, the family is our link to the past, the bridge to our future.”

– Alex Haley (Author, Roots)

I was the first in my family to be born in the United States. My parents carried with them family histories shaped by war, occupation, displacement, and the loss of their homeland.

Both my father’s and mother’s families fled Lithuania during World War II, eventually finding refuge in Displaced Persons camps in Germany. Both families came to the United States in 1949. Her parents met in 1959.

Their memories of Lithuania and the responsibility to preserve its culture from afar became the foundation of my identity and, decades later, helped lead me back to Lithuania.

1910

Daiva's great-grandparents Sena Baba (Stefanija Acenivičiutė) and Vladas Berentas' wedding photo.

1920

Daiva's grandfather Jonas Venckus (far left) with his mother and siblings.

1920s

Daiva's great-grandmother, Sena Baba (Stefanija), found work as a secretary in the Prime Minister's office of the new Lithuanian government, which was seeking to build a democratic republic.

1929

Daiva's grandfather Kazys' family. His brother Petras reads the newspaper to their parents, Katriute and Andrius Karuža.

1929

Daiva's great-grandparents: Juozas and Paulina Vasilauskas (Brone's parents)

1930s

Daiva's grandfather Jonas Venckus (third from the top left) with his siblings and family. Half the Venckus family was sent to Siberian prison camps after World War II.

1931

Daiva's great-grandparents: Katriute and Andrius Karuža (Kazys' parents). They lived on a small homestead in Vilkiaviškis, which their young son at the time, Kazys, helped them purchase.

1936

The wedding photo of Daiva's paternal grandparents, Brone and Jonas Venckus, in Lithuania.

1936

Daiva's grandparents, Jonas and Brone, in Kaunas, at the Lithuanian Rifleman's Center.

1936

Sena Baba (Stefanija Ancevičiutė-Berentienė) with her second husband, Tomas Migauskas, and her 23-year-old daughter Jadvyga in their Kaunas apartment.

1937

Daiva's infant father, Romas, with his grandmother, Paulina, and his parents, Jonas and Brone, in Lithuania.

1937

Daiva's father, Romas, with his mother, Brone, in Kaunas, Lithuania.

1938

The wedding day of Daiva's grandparents, Jadvyga and Kazys, in Lithuania.

1939

Daiva's grandfather Jonas Venckus worked as a policeman in Lithuania. In 1939, after the Kremlin gave the Lithuanian government an ultimatum to accept Soviet troops on Lithuanian territory, Jonas witnessed Soviet soldiers cross the border. He received orders to lay down his weapon so the Soviet troops could cross, the same troops that would soon overthrow the Lithuanian government.

1940

During World War II, the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Daiva's toddler father, Romas, went out into the streets to beg for food for his younger siblings when his father, Jonas, was imprisoned by Soviet forces.

1943

Daiva's maternal grandmother, Jadvyga Karuža, wearing a Lithuanian national costume. This costume was passed down to Daiva.

1944

Daiva's grandmother Jadvyga's Lithuanian passport with stamps from the Free Republic of Lithuania and Soviet-occupied Lithuania.

1946

Daiva's father and siblings in Czechoslovakia after escaping from Soviet-occupied Lithuania. (Laimis, Dana, Juozas, Romas)

1946

Daiva's mother's family at the Displaced Persons camp in Germany. (Kazys, Jadvyga, Giedrė, Šarũnas)

1947

Daiva's father's family found refuge in the Garmisch Displaced Persons Camp in Germany. (Jonas, Dana, Juozas, Romas, Brone, Laimis)

1947

Daiva's father's family in the displaced persons camp in Germany. For Christmas, each child received an apple. Daiva's father, Romas, and his brother, Laimis, received a sled that their father built, and their youngest brother received a scooter (also built by their father). Their sister Dana received a colorful ribbon for her hair.

1949

Daiva's grandfather, Kazys Karuža, traveling with other refugees on the US Navy ship to the United States. Kazys is in the middle with the suit blazer.

1950s

Daiva's grandmother, Brone, had a second job in Boston as a waitress at an Italian restaurant owned by an Italian immigrant family. Brone's first job was as a janitor at the local hospital with Jonas.

1950s

Brone and Jonas Venckus in front of their home in South Boston

1954

The grave of Daiva's great-grandmother, Paulina Vasiliauskas (Brone's mother), in the Siberian Gulag.

1955

Daiva's father's family in Boston, Massachusetts. (Jonas, Dana, Brone, Laimis, Juozas, Romas)

1956

Three generations in their new home in Hollywood, California. Daiva's mother, Giedrė, with her mother, Jadvyga, and her grandmother, Sena Baba (Stefanija).

1958

Daiva's father's family in Boston, Massachusetts. (Jonas, Brone, Romas, Lamis, Dana, Juozas.)

1964

Daiva's parents, Romas and Giedrė, get married at St. Casimir's Lithuanian Catholic Church in Los Feliz, California.

1964

Daiva's parents' wedding photo with their parents. Kazys and Jadvyga Karuža, Giedrė and Romas, Brone and Jonas Venckus.

1965

Daiva's parents, Romas and Giedrė, in their first apartment together in Los Angeles.

1969

The extended Venckus family in the Karuža home in Los Angeles, California. Young Daiva sits on Brone's lap in the middle. (Jadvyga, Jonas, Romas, Giedrė, Aldona, Dalia, Kazys, Linas, Brone, Daiva, Juozas, Andrea, Dana, Rolandas, Šarūnas, Sena Baba (Stefanija))

Additional Story Galleries

Crossing the Iron Curtain

Inside the Revolution

Freedom & Identity Reclaimed