October 31 a new exhibition opens in Paneriai, a summer resort once popular with Vilnius residents, which witnessed the brutal events of the Holocaust during the Second World War. The exhibition about the history of Paneri, commemoration of the victims and the latest research was prepared by the State Jewish Museum of Vilnius Gaon, financed by the Chancellery of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.
Although today Paneriai is known as the largest place of mass murder organized and carried out by the Nazis in Lithuania, before the Second World War the beautiful surroundings of the Paneriai Forest near Vilnius were popular with vacationers, and in 1939 the area has even been granted resort status. After the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, fuel storage and ammunition warehouses were built in Paneriai, a dozen pits were dug, which were later used for gruesome mass murders: 1941-1944. between 50 and 000 people were shot by the Nazis and their local auxiliaries in Paneri. Most of them were Jews from Vilnius and the Vilnius region, the rest were Polish underground fighters, Lithuanian national teams soldiers, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and other local residents.
The first monument to the Jewish victims of Paneri, erected in 1948, was quickly demolished by the Soviet authorities and until the Revival, the Paneri memorial officially functioned as a place of massacre of "Soviet citizens", "Vilnius residents", and "civilians". in 1991 The Paneriau memorial was handed over to the State Jewish Museum of Vilnius Gaon. During the development of 2014 In 70, the comprehensive restoration project of the Paneriai Memorial was started, detailed research was carried out in the area of the former mass killings, after which the previous understanding of the place of the Paneriai Mass Killings was radically changed. Various new objects were located: places of massacres, trenches for prisoners, security posts, places of former buildings, gates. It also turned out that the territory of the massacre was much larger than previously thought - it could have occupied an area of as much as XNUMX hectares.
According to Zigmos Vitkaus, the historian of the museum and head of the Paneriai Memorial, there has been a lack of consistent research on the territory of Paneriai until now.
"The history of the mass killings in Paneri has been well-studied, but the site itself has so far been studied in fragments. Four years ago, in 1944, Nazi war pilots met. we invited the historians of the Institute of History of Lithuania to help with the aerial photograph taken of the place; geophysical research specialists. The combination of historical research methods, traditional archeology and geophysical methods (territory surface scanning by 3D method, georadar research and electric tomography method) gave incredible results. After 2015-2017 the area of the Paneriai Memorial has become easier to "read" as a result of the research carried out. In other words, now we know exactly where the object was and what function it could have performed in the machinery of murder," says Z. Vitkus.
The new outdoor exposition and the exhibition in the information center of the Paneriau Memorial (Agrastų st. 15, Vilnius) present the complex history of Paneriau and the latest research results, while the information boards introduce the unique objects in the area - the pits of mass killings, the pit-bunker where the "arson brigades" were kept. ", members of which had to exhume and burn the bodies of the murdered by the order of the Nazis, monuments commemorating the memory of the victims. The exposition and the exhibition are prepared in four languages: Lithuanian, English, Polish and Hebrew. At the beginning of next year, a special app will be presented that will acquaint visitors with the history of the objects in the Paneriau Memorial, and in the future, after the implementation of the comprehensive renovation project of the Paneriau Memorial, the temporary expositions will be replaced by permanent ones.
The State Jewish Museum of Vilniaus Gaon hosts exhibitions of Lithuanian Jewish art, culture, history and the Holocaust, as well as cultural and educational events. events, conferences, film screenings, discussions on topics relevant to society. The museum's mission is to discover together the authentic world of Lithuanian Jews, protect heritage, learn from history and create a common future.
