Members of the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community spent the day of August 20 touring the Akmenė visiting sites with once populous Jewish communities. The tour began in Šiauliai and continued on in Papilė, where wood carver, traveller, naturalist and geographer Steponas Adomavičius met the group and gave them a guided tour of Jewish residences from before the Holocaust. Members visited the old Jewish cemetery in Papilė, a cemetery which features a commemorative stone and which Adomavičius himself maintains without remuneration. He cuts the grass and hedges and plants small trees. A grateful Jewish man living in America installed a bench bearing Steponas Adomavičius’s name in the cemetery in order to thank him.

The group was unable to reach the Jewish mass murder site in the woods of the Papilė aldermanship because there was no path through the forest at all. Adomavičius spoke about new projects he’s doing in connection with preserving the memory of the Jewish people.

From Papilė the group went on towards Akmenė, where the teacher Rita Ringienė met them and imparted much important information. Some Jewish structures survive in Akmenė. The teacher and pupils from her higher classes have done a study called “Inscriptions on Headstones in the Akmenė Jewish Cemetery and Their Translation to Lithuanian.” The group visited the old Jewish cemetery in Akmenė.

The next stop was Vegeriai, where regional history expert Arūnas Ostrauskis explained how Jews were driven out and murdered in Mažeikiai in the early days of the war. No Jewish sites have survived here. All that still bears witness to the Jewish presence is the old Jewish cemetery nearby, although it is difficult to access. Currently archaeological surveys have revealed foundations in the village which are believed to have been the Jewish school and synagogue.

Near Vegeriai lies the village of Klykoliai, where since time immemorial Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians and Jews lived in concord. The group visited the Klykoliai Village Domestic Life Museum where exhibits witness to the traditional trades, everyday life and customs of the region. Klykoliai has an old Jewish cemetery.

The group returned to Šiauliai the same evening.