On September 22 and 23, the 75th anniversary of the mass murder of the Jews of Lithuania, the names of Holocaust victims will be read out loud on the eve and day of the Day of Remembrance of the Jewish Genocide Victims of Lithuania. The civic initiative VARDAI [NAMES] invites the public to remember the brutally exterminated citizens of Lithuania by uttering their names and surnames at the locations where they once lived.
VARDAI coordinator and museum specialist Milda Jakulytė-Vasil said: “A person is not a number. The reading of the names is a personal expression of commemoration and empathy. It only takes five minutes. We welcome everyone who wants to remember.” Participants at the events have said this kind of Holocaust victim commemoration helped them comprehend the scope of the tragedy in a very personal way. When you say a person’s name, it’s no longer possible to pretend that person never existed, and the statistics telling us 90 percent of 220,000 Jews living in Lithuania were murdered becomes more than just a number.
This will be the sixth annual reading of the names in Lithuanian cities and towns, to include more communities than ever before. At least several dozen cities and towns are participating in reading the names this year, including Vilnius, Kaunas, Marijampolė, Ukmergė, Merkinė, Molėtai, Jonava, Kėdainiai, Švėkšna, Dieveniškės, Eišiškės, Kretinga, Jurbarkas, Žemaičių Naumiestis and others. Many of these events include additional components, such as cleaning up mass murder sites, visiting old Jewish cemeteries and meetings with survivors.
For further information, see: https://vardu.wordpress.com/, facebook group VARDAI, www.jmuseum.lt
Contact:
VARDAI coordinator Milda Jakulytė-Vasil
telephone: 861237573
email: milda@holocaustatlas.lt
Readings of names of Holocaust victims on September 22 are happening in:
Vilnius:
12:30 – 2:30 Vilniaus street no. 31/Islandijos street nos. 1,2, next to the recently unveiled “Stones of Memory” dedicated to Dr. Jacob Wygodsky and Dr. Samuel Margolis, and at the stones dedicated to Fania and Lazar Lewando, founders and owners of the pre-war vegetarian restaurant in Vilnius (Vokiečių street no. 14).
3:00 Reading of names in the courtyard of the former ghetto library (Žemaitijos street no. 4), reading of the Molei prayer for the dead, led by Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yatom. The reading of the names here is scheduled to last until 6:00 P.M.
Kaunas:
12:00-6:00 Reading of the names at former Slobodka Yeshiva, Panerių street no. 51 (at the bus stop Dobilas)
Dieveniškės:
12 noon Town square
Jonava:
12 noon courtyard of the Jonava Regional History Museum ( J. Basanavičiaus street no. 3)
Žemaičių Naumiestis:
1:00 P.M. outside the Žemaičių Naumiestis synagogue, but in case of rain at the Žemaičių Naumiestis section of the Hugo Šojus Museum of Šilutė (Pergalės alley no. 17)
Readings of names of Holocaust victims on September 23 are happening in:
Eišiškės:
12 noon Town square
Jurbarkas:
12 noon Jurbarkas Jewish cemetery and mass murder site
Kaunas:
7:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. Tautos namai [House of the Nation] (Vytauto prospect no. 79)
Kėdainiai:
12 noon At the monument at the mass murder site in Daukšiai village, Kėdainiai region
Kretinga:
7:00 P.M. Town Hall Square
Marijampolė:
4:00 At a former synagogue now housing the Beatričės Kleizaitės-Vasaris menų galerija [Vasaris Art Gallery of Beatričė Kleizaitė] (P. Butlerienės street no. 5)
Molėtai:
12 noon Town square
Semeliškės:
12 noon At gymnasium on town square (Trakų street no. 73)
Šeduva:
4:00 P.M. at the monument to the Jews of Šeduva in the town center
Švėkšna:
12 noon Švėkšna section of the Hugo Šojus Museum of Šilutė (Bažnyčios street no. 9a)
Švenčionys region:
12 noon Sites of mass murder of Jews of Inturkė near Parašė village in the Labanoras aldermanship
Ukmergė:
2:00 – 5:00 Old Jewish cemetery on Vilniaus street (across from Pivonija store)
11:00 A.M. Mass murder site village of Antakalnis II in Lyduokiai aldermanship, Ukmergė region