Lithuanian public radio and television radio program Ryto garsai, January 27, 2020

Speaker of the Lithuanian parliament Viktoras Pranckietis en route to a Holocaust commemoration at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp told LRT.lt this was a day for commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. He said Lithuania’s participation both at Auschwitz and the World Holocaust Forum in Israel were steps which strengthened bilateral ties with the Jewish community.

The United Nations declared January 27 the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust in 2005 in a resolution condemning all forms of Holocaust denial.

The Lithuanian speaker of parliament said the day is important to other peoples besides Jews.

“This [Auschwitz] was the main factory of murder in World War II,” Pranckietis commented.

He praised the World Holocaust Forum in Israel as well.

“There was no question about why somebody but not the president [attended]. There was sufficient representation,” he said.