On September 23rd, in commemoration of the Memorial Day of the Victims of the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania and the 76th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, the initiative of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania will take place throughout Lithuania on the "Path of Memory" to the places of Jewish massacres.
The biggest commemoration of the "Memory Road" will take place in Rūdninkai Square. After that, the participants of the commemoration will go to Vilnius railway station and will continue the procession from the Paneri railway of the station to the Paneriai Memorial. During the commemoration, students will present a literary-artistic composition based on the memories of Holocaust victims.
Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Pranckietis, members of the Seimas and the Government, the Mayor of Vilnius will take part in the event in Rūdninkai Square Remigius Šimašius, ambassadors of foreign countries, delegations from 8 European countries and JAV, a group of Litvaks from Israel, the Lithuanian Jewish community, more than 600 students and teachers from Vilnius and other cities.
The traditional civic initiative "Memory Road" is an invitation to teachers and students to remember the numerous Lithuanian Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust, and to go together to the places of mass killings along the roads along which the Jews were driven on their last journey. There are more than 200 such places in Lithuania.
While preparing for the commemoration, the students got acquainted with the history, traditions and cultural heritage of the Jewish community that lived in that area. The aim is that students not only know about the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also about the large Jewish community that lived in Lithuania.
According to the Executive Director of the International Commission, Ronald Račinskas, "such events aim to create awareness in society that the Holocaust is not only a Jewish tragedy, but also a loss for all of Lithuania - the lost intellectual, cultural, political and economic potential of our country."
Participants of the "Memory Trail" are invited to bring stones with the names of Holocaust victims written on them.
All over Lithuania, more than 150 schools will participate in the "Memory Road" events.
The civic initiative "Path of Memory" is being prepared by the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania in cooperation with the European "March of the Living" organization.
The holocaust in Lithuania began when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. From approximately 208-210 thousand 190-196 thousand Jews were killed by the end of World War II, most of them between 1941 June and December
Around 9 people were also killed. Jewish refugees from Poland and 6 thousand. Jews brought from Austria, Germany and France. Not counting those who escaped to the depths of the USSR, about 96 percent were killed. Lithuanian Jews (approximately 190 thousand people). After the war, only about 9 thousand people remained in Lithuania. Jews. In the history of Lithuania, the Holocaust is characterized by the largest number of victims in a short period of time.
Eleonora Budzinauskienė (ELTA)
