When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1944, several thousand Lithuanians retreated to West Germany and were accommodated in DP (displaced persons) camps. Basically, DPs were without rights; they had no rights to free work and movement. Antebellum independent Lithuania’s education experience was applied at the maximum, in 1945-1950 under heavy and extraordinarily conditions Lithuanian inhabitants in West Germany restored independence for Lithuania’s secondary and higher education systems and created opportunities to the youth to pursue the professional background in varying formal education establishments (gymnasium, profession school, higher education institutions) and in non-formal (different courses) Lithuanian profession training establishments. Through these establishments the Lithuanian youth had opportunity to obtain wanted profession, to integrate with the foreign community, whereas the profession training establishments, such as institutions, educated young generation and supported nationally, by making the opportunity to the Lithuanians to learn in their native language.

Article in Lithuanian