Forest of the Gods

Forest of the Gods (Lithuanian: Dievų miškas) is a memoir written by Lithuanian poet and playwright Balys Sruoga, chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp during World War II. The book is considered one of the most significant works in Lithuanian literature and was among the earliest memoirs in Europe documenting life in Nazi concentration camps.

Background

Balys Sruoga (1896–1947) was a prominent Lithuanian literary scholar, dramatist, and poet. In 1943, he was arrested by the Nazi authorities—reportedly due to his involvement in cultural activities—and deported to Stutthof near Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). Despite enduring harsh conditions and severe illness, he survived the camp and was released shortly before the end of the war.

Title

According to the author, the title Forest of the Gods refers to the wooded, swampy region where the concentration camp was located. The ironic name captures the dissonance between the natural landscape and the cruelty perpetrated within it.

Writing and publication

Sruoga began writing the memoir in 1945 while recovering in a writers sanatorium in Birštonas, Lithuania. He completed the 450-page manuscript in just a few months. However, the Soviet authorities suppressed its publication for over a decade. The memoir was deemed ideologically inappropriate due to its depiction of both Nazi and Soviet authorities in a critical, humanized, or ambiguous light. A censored version was eventually published posthumously in 1957, while the uncensored original was released only in 2011.

Style and themes

The memoir is notable for its use of gallows humor and ironic detachment as coping mechanisms. Rather than presenting a straightforward narrative of victimhood, Sruoga employs satire and absurdist commentary to underscore the moral and psychological degradation found in the camp system. One often-cited example is an anecdote where a supposedly dead inmate begins to sigh, prompting another prisoner to quip: "Well, well, why are you sighing? You died already – then just be dead and don't sigh!"

Major themes include the absurdity of authoritarian power, spiritual resistance, and the resilience of human dignity. Scholars have compared Sruoga's tone and philosophical approach to that of writers such as Primo Levi, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Elie Wiesel, though his use of irony is considered uniquely Lithuanian in its literary expression.

Reception and legacy

Forest of the Gods is widely studied in Lithuanian schools and remains a cornerstone of national literature. It is recognized not only as a Holocaust testimony but also as a profound philosophical reflection on oppression and human morality. The book has been translated into multiple languages and is regarded as a key document in Eastern European Holocaust literature.

Film adaptation

In 2005, the memoir was adapted into a feature film of the same name (Dievų miškas) directed by Algimantas Puipa. The film became the most commercially successful Lithuanian movie since the country regained independence in 1990. It closely follows the memoir's narrative and preserves much of its psychological tension and emotional tone.

See also

• Balys Sruoga
• Stutthof concentration camp
• Holocaust literature

Translations

• Russian translation: Лес богов, by Григорий Канович and Фёдор Шуравин, 1957
• Polish translation: Las bogów (from Russian) by Stanislaw Majewski, Gdynia : Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1965 (Las bogów in libraries (WorldCat catalog))
• English translation: by Ausrine Byla, by Vaga Publishers, Vilnius, 1996.