On 5 June 2024, the first march from Vilnius to the Paneriai Holocaust Memorial took place along the old road used by the Nazis and their local collaborators to march the victims to the execution site.
The march started at the beginning of Savanorių Avenue, near the Chapel of St. Hyacinth (Jackus), where eighty and more years ago was the boundary and the gate of Vilnius. In the beginning, the route of the old road to Paneriai was presented to those taking part in the march – 8 stands were erected along the road, showing photographs taken in 1944 by Akiva Gershater and, for comparison, images of the present day, illustrated with historical information. At the first stand, the students were told about Akiva Gershater, who captured the old road to Paneriai. This man was a Vilnius Jew, a bibliographer, and an Esperanto scholar rescued from the Vilnius ghetto by the traveler and fellow Esperanto scholar Antanas Poška. The marchers were told about the Vilnius Ghetto and how this road was used to march people to Paneriai to be shot in 1941-1944.
After the introduction to the beginning of the historical road, the marchers walked along Savanorių Avenue from one stand to another until finally, at the end of Savanorių Avenue, the road turned to the hills of Paneriai and followed the cobblestone historical route.
One section of the march had to be covered by buses, as the road leading to Trakai was bustling. However, after reaching the railway tracks at Paneriai, the participants continued on foot to the final destination – the Paneriai Memorial. The aim of this event was to experience the route prepared along the stands and to get acquainted with the historical route, which recalls the events of the Holocaust and reveals the long and arduous journey that weakened and tortured people had to walk to the place of their death.
More than a hundred students and teachers from five Lithuanian schools— Anykščiai Antanas Baranauskas Middle School, Marijampolė Ryto Middle School, Kaunas Jonas and Petras Vileišiai School, Kaunas Veršvų Gymnasium and Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium – took part in the explorative march.
The educational march for school communities was organised by the Secretariat of the International Commission in cooperation with the Jewish Culture and Information Centre.
Historical material for the eight educational stands in Vilnius was prepared by historian Zigmas Vitkus (Klaipėda University). The Paneriai Route information stands project in Vilnius was implemented by the Centre for Jewish Culture and Information, the Vilnius City Municipality, the Vilnius City Museum, and the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes Committed by the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
