Veronika Alseikienė
Lithuanian physician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Veronika Alseikienė née Janulaitytė (1883–1971) was a Lithuanian physician and activist.[lower-alpha 1]
Veronika Alseikienė | |
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Born | Veronika Janulaitytė (1883-05-18)18 May 1883 |
Died | 26 September 1971(1971-09-26) (aged 88) |
Burial place | Petrašiūnai Cemetery |
Alma mater | University of Bern University of Berlin |
Occupation | Physician |
Board member of | Lithuanian Sanitary Aid Society |
Spouse | Danielius Alseika |
Children | Vytautas Kazimieras Alseika [lt] Marija Gimbutas |
She studied medicine at the Universities of Bern and Berlin choosing ophthalmology as her specialty. She established her private practice in Ukmergė in summer 1910. During World War I, together with her husband Danielius Alseika, she co-founded the Lithuanian Sanitary Aid Society. This society purchased a military hospital and moved it from Minsk to Vilnius. Alseikienė worked at this hospital until 1931. At the same time she actively participated in the Lithuanian cultural life in Vilnius Region which was contested between Poland and Lithuania.
In 1931, she decided to move to Kaunas and effectively retire from the public life. 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. Alseikienė remained in Lithuania and did not reestablish contacts with her children until the mid-1950s.