On 29 July, in Raseiniai, the procession of the Road of Memory marched along the road where the Jews of Raseiniai were sent to death in 1941.
On 29 July, the events of 80 years ago, when the Jews of Raseiniai were marched to death, were remembered in Raseiniai. On Thursday evening, the International Commission presented a newly published book “The Holocaust in the Province of Lithuania in 1941” at the Raseiniai Marcelijus Martinaitis Public Library. The author of the book, a member of the subcommittee of the International Commission on the Nazi Occupation Regime and the Holocaust evaluation, historian Arūnas Bubnys, told about the events of the beginning of the Holocaust in Raseiniai. After the book’s presentation, participants lined up for the march of Remembrance, which started from the car wash parking lot. In 1941, there were some farming facilities of the monastery there, and some members of the Jewish community were imprisoned before they were shot.
The participants of the event went about 6 km along the way where the Jews, the inhabitants of Raseiniai, were sent to death 80 years ago. A commemoration event took place at the monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Kalnujai. It commemorated the history of July 29-30, 1941. The event was attended by a guest from Israel – Lilija Lazarskė, whose father, at the age of 28, being injured escaped from the shooting site in Kalnujai and spent three years hiding in the forests, and survived with the help of the locals and having the greatest desire to live.
Many of the local community took part in the commemoration event: Andrius Bautronis, the Mayor of Raseiniai district, together with employees of the municipality, members of Raseiniai Rotary Club, Kalnujai elder with ward representatives, the staff from Raseiniai Regional History Museum, Raseiniai Disability Employment and Service Center, teachers from Raseiniai “Šaltinis” Progymnasium, students and teachers from Viduklė Simonas Stanevičius Gymnasium, a representative of the Secretariat of the International Commission.
The Road of Memory in Raseiniai is one of the events, organized by the International Commission in 2021, implementing the National Project “The Road of Memory of 1941 – 2021”.
Moments from the event:
Photos by Arnas Zmitra