On 24 September, a march was held from Vilnius to Paneriai, along the old road where the Jews imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto were driven on foot to their final destination in 1941-1943.
The march started at the beginning of Savanorių av., where the first information stand about the old road from Vilnius is located. This road commemorates the tragic events related to the history of the Holocaust in Vilnius. The display stands show photographs by Akiva Gershater, which capture how the road looked in 1944. Akiva Gershater was rescued from the Vilnius ghetto by the famous traveller Antanas Poška. The seven information stands on the history of the old road to Paneriai were prepared on the initiative of the Jewish Culture and Information Centre in Vilnius.
The march participants walked for about 3 hours to the Paneriai Memorial, stopping at the information stands along the way. At Paneriai, the marchers took part in a ceremony to honour the victims of the Holocaust.
The students and teachers were greeted by Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Lithuania, who welcomed the activity of the school communities and their willingness to learn about the complex events of Lithuanian history.
Michel Gourary, Executive Director of the European March of the Living (EMOTL), was present at the ceremony. He shared his family history with the marchers, telling the story of his grandfather, who was imprisoned in 4 concentration camps during the Second World War and was killed two weeks before the end of the war.
Ronaldas Račinskas, Head of the Secretariat of the International Commission, who hosted the ceremony, thanked all those who dared to walk the 9-10 kilometres. The ceremony ended with the anthem of the Vilnius ghetto prisoners, composed in Yiddish by Hirsch Glik, who was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, and sung by the Vilnius Saulėtekis School and Multifunctional Centre.
139 students and their teachers from five Lithuanian general education institutions participated in the march: Kaunas Jonas and Petras Vileišius School, Kaunas Juozas Grušas Art Gymnasium, Lentvaris Versmės Gymnasium, Elektrėnai Vocational Training Centre, and Vilnius Pažinimo Medžio Gymnasium.
The educational march along the historic old Vilnius-Paneriai road was organised by the Secretariat of the International Commission in cooperation with the Jewish Culture and Information Centre in Vilnius.
