Events to mark Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day have ended. All week long civics lessons, social campaigns and other events were held throughout the Kaunas region to remember and honor Holocaust victims.

At the final event Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas passed on a message from Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, singling out and thanking for their contributions in preserving the Jewish cultural legacy leaders of the Kaunas municipality and regional administration, the aldermen of Babtai, Čekiškė and Garliava districts as well as of Vilkija, Vandžiogala and Zapyškis; the director of the public library; folk artist Arūnas Sniečkus, Jonučiai Gymnasium director Valentinas Padriezas and Urban Planning Department deputy director Rūta Černiauskienė for her active cooperation with the Jewish Community.

Gercas and Kaunas mayor Makūnas agreed that more than money is needed to safeguard history. “Since joint efforts and good will are needed. All of the dead were Lithuanian Jews, which is to say, Lithuanians, who, like you, fought for the country’s independence, studied, worked and lived in common with everyone else,” Gercas said.