On September 23rd, the 80th anniversary of the anti-Nazi resistance and liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, the Vilnius Gaon Jewish History Museum (VGŽIM) welcomes significant changes at the Panerių Memorial (Memorial St. 15): from now on, it will be much more convenient to visit the memorial site.
September 23 is written in the history of Lithuania and the world in letters darkened by blood. On that day 80 years ago, the Nazis liquidated the Vilnius ghetto - they shot a large part of the prisoners and took the rest to other concentration camps. In the three years from the summer of 1941 to the middle of 1944, tens of thousands of people - Jews, Poles, Roma, Lithuanians - were killed in Paneri.
"This place occupies a unique place in the pages of traumatic history. During the Soviet era, traditionally, according to the ideology introduced by the nomenclature, it was announced at the places of Jewish massacres that Soviet citizens were killed here. This is how the Soviet regime, erasing the memory and distorting the historical facts about the Holocaust, killed Lithuanian Jews for the second time. Only this time they killed their memory", says VGŽIM director Dr. Simon Streltsov.
The museum maintains and manages the Paneriai Memorial Complex. This year, the first stage of maintenance work was implemented: the old benches were replaced by new ones, more of them were installed; all information stands have been replaced - from now on they publish more relevant and attractive information.
Soon, the new website of the Paneriau Memorial will be presented to the Lithuanian public and foreigners. It will provide information not only about the memorial - a virtual tour and an audio guide will be created for the convenience of visitors, telling about the most important objects of the Paneriai Memorial.
The territory of the Paneriai Memorial was renovated for the last time in 1983-1985 - in the way that was possible or wanted to be possible during the Soviet era. Then Paneriai functioned as a place of remembrance for "Soviet citizens", "Vilnius residents", "civilian residents", murdered Hitlerites. The fact that most of them were Jews is ignored.
The 80th anniversary of the anti-national resistance and liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto will be celebrated throughout Lithuania this weekend. The Vilnius Gaon Museum of Jewish History makes it meaningful with a series of events - the Warsaw Ghetto Museum exhibition "City of the Living / City of the Dead", tours of the former Vilnius Great and Small Ghettos, documentaries and discussion evenings at the "Cinematic History Museum of Jewish History". The exhibition "Samuelis Bak's Art in Vilnius: Retrospective 1942-2023" is open in the museum.
On September 24, at 11 a.m., the historian Dr. An excursion by Mantos Šikšnians, which tells about the Paneriai escape tunnel. At the place of mass killings, since 1943. as the Nazis tried to cover up the traces of the crimes, 80 people were imprisoned, who had to exhume and burn the remains of those shot. The same fate would have awaited them, but the prisoners decided to save themselves...
