Vilnius University rector professor Artūras Žukauskas presented Estera Klabinaitė Grobman (98) a “return of memory” diploma May 1 in Arad, Israel. Grobman is a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in the Kaunas ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp. She is the only surviving member of a group of students who experienced the Holocaust. In her youth she dreamt of being a chemist, matriculated at university, but only studied one year. In 1941, when WWII and the Holocaust began in Lithuania, she was removed from the student rolls because of her Jewish ethnicity.
Photos by Milda Rūkaitė
The rector travelled to Israel to honor Grobman and present her a diploma in her hometown Arad. Lithuanian ambassador to Israel Edminas Bagdonas, Vilnius University’s Dr. Jurgita Verbickienė and Grobman’s son, grandson and great-grandson also attended the graduation ceremony.
“This is our tribute to all the members of the community who were thrown out of university by the totalitarian regimes and today we return to them their diplomas. Our historians are at working seeking out former students employing various methods in Lithuania and the world,” rector Žukauskas said at the ceremony.
The webpage of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the internet news site Delfi.lt have told Grobman’s story of her youth spent in Kaunas before the war and her imprisonment in the Kaunas ghetto and Stutthof concentration camp. The founders of the Return of Memory project learned of her via these articles. The photos portray moments from the Return of Memory Diploma Awards Ceremony.
Vilnius University in carrying out the Return of Memory project based on academic research is seeking through this initiative to remember and honor members of the Vilnius University community, students and staff who because of Lithuania’s varied history, the actions of totalitarian regimes and/or collaboration by locals were thrown out of university and did not have the opportunity to complete their studies and acquire an education, and/or to continue academic research and pedagogical and other activities connected with the university.
More information about Estera Klabinaitė Grobman is available on the LJC site here.
More information in Lithuanian is available on the Delfi site here.