“Lithuanian spirit has been within me from the day of my birth”. Prof. Steponas Kairys is 140
Steponas Kairys – engineer, signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania of 16 February 1918, Minister of Supply and Provision, member of the Constituent Assembly, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Seimas (Parliament), Head of the Sewerage and Water Supply Unit of Kaunas City Municipality, Associate Professor of the Technical Faculty of the University of Lithuania (later – Vytautas Magnus University), later – Professor, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania. He is a legendary personality and his life could be turned into a thriller film. All his life S. Kairys was fighting for the democracy and independence of Lithuania. S. Kairys prepared a project and supervised the construction of the water supply and sewage system of Kaunas, making the Temporary Capital of Lithuania a modern European city. During the period of Nazi occupation, S. Kairys was hiding a Jewish girl; he was one of the leaders of the anti-Nazi resistance – Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania – in 1943-1945. In 1943, he and other members of the Senate of Vytautas Magnus University experienced several days of imprisonment with hard labour in Kaunas prison. He went to Germany with war refugees, later he travelled to the United States, where he lived till his death by the name of Juozas Kaminskas. To commemorate the anniversary of S. Kairys, KTU Museum has organised an exhibition displaying the photographs and documents from KTU Museum, archive and library, as well as private archives.
