In commemoration of the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews and the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, civic initiatives „The memory path“ran all over Lithuania in almost 200 sites – large Jewish communities of Lithuania, who were eliminated during the Holocaust, were remembered, people were walking together to the mass massacre sites.
In preparation for the commemoration events, pupils were introduced to the Jewish community’s history, traditions, and cultural heritage that remained in the area. The aim is to make pupils aware not only of the Holocaust tragedy, but also of the large Jewish community, which resided in Lithuania; to raise awareness in the society that the Holocaust is not only a Jewish tragedy, but also the loss to Lithuania in general – the loss of intellectual, cultural, political and economic potential of our country. The participants of the “Memory path” were invited to bring stones with the names of the victims of the Holocaust and to arrange the name of a particular city, town (shtetl, as it was called by the Jews) in Lithuanian and Yiddish. This was in remembrance of innocent victims, destroyed Jewish communities, their language and customs.
The “Memory path” in Vilnius ran from Paneriai Railway Station to the Memorial of Paneriai. During the commemoration, pupils presented a literary-artistic composition based on the recollections of the Holocaust victims, read out the names of innocent victims, and arranged the name of Vilnius in the Lithuanian and Yiddish languages.
“The memory path” was initiated by the International Commission of Historical Justice in co-operation with the authors of the idea of reading out the names of victims of the Holocaust – the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.
The organizers give thanks to “Lietuvos gelezinkeliai” for transporting the participants free of charge from Vilnius to Paneriai.
You will find more moments from the civic initiative in the gallery.