Veronika Alseikienė

During World War I, together with her husband Danielius Alseika, she co-founded the Lithuanian Sanitary Aid Society.

At the same time she actively participated in the Lithuanian cultural life in Vilnius Region which was contested between Poland and Lithuania.

At the end of World War II, both of her children – journalist Vytautas Kazimieras Alseika [lt] and archaeologist Marija Gimbutas – retreated to Germany and then moved to the United States.

[4] She chose ophthalmology as her specialty because she wanted to treat trachoma, a preventable disease than can lead to blindness.

She then briefly worked at the clinic of Vladimir Dolganov [ru] before signing up to treat an outbreak of typhus in the Tula Governorate.

This work paid 300 Russian rubles[5] and allowed her to earn enough money to purchase medical equipment so that she could open her private practice.

They briefly attended additional medical courses in Vienna but rushed to return to Lithuania at the outbreak of World War I. Alseikienė worked at a Red Cross hospital in Vilnius.

[6] She established a 30-bed hospital with assistance from the Red Cross and General Aleksei Evert, commander of the Western Front.

[7] The Sanitary Aid Society managed to purchase equipment and other inventory of a war hospital and relocated it to Vilnius in July 1918.

To teach these children skills, she initiated crafts classes (for example, knitting for girls and blacksmithing for boys).

In May 1924, the Polish authorities wanted to deport both Alseika and Alseikienė, but it was avoided after a complaint to the Human Rights League in Paris.

Her son Vytautas Kazimieras Alseika [lt] graduated high school and did not want to attend the Polish Vilnius University.

[5] Alseikienė's daughter Marija Gimbutas later claimed that her cousin Meilė Lukšienė had a formative influence on her youth.

[3] Alseikienė worked at the National Health Insurance Fund and opened a private practice, but otherwise retired from the public life.

Alseikienė with her husband in 1915
Board members of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers (Alseikienė sits second from the right)
Memorial plaque on the house where the Alseika family lived in Vilnius in 1918–1931