The Order of Malta and the Jewish communities of Lithuania and Munich, Germany held a concert and reception in the Hercules Hall at the Munich Rezidens palace, with proceeds and donations collected during the concert going to support still-living rescuers of Jews.

Lithuanian ambassador to Germany Deividas Matulionis attended the event on November 2 and delivered a message from Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė, the patroness of the event.

“Even in the very darkest hours of our history, righteous gentiles witnessed to human values. They erected an eternal monument to the most important human values through their brave choices and actions,” president Dalia Grybauskaitė said in her message.

Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky spoke at the event as well, as did president of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München und Oberbayern Dr. Charlotte Knobloch and the ambassador of the Order of Malta to Lithuania Christian von Bechtolsheim, who initiated the event. The latter remarked 871 people who saved Jews during the Holocaust have been recognized in Lithuania, which is more than the total number of rescuers in Germany.

Famous German conductor Enoch zu Guttenberg conducted the KlangVerwaltung orchestra performing Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, and the young German-Italian pianist Sophie Pacini played Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 23. German author Senek Rosenblum read excerpts from his book of memoirs Der Junge im Schrank [Child in the Closet] on the Holocaust, which he endured and survived in Warsaw thanks to Catholic rescuers.

President of the Federal Republic of Germany Joachim Gauck agreed to serve as co-patron of the event along with Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė.

lzinios.lt
Full story in Lithuanian here.