In 2005 the UN General Assembly proclaimed January 27 the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. On that day in 1945 the Red Army liberated the prisoners at the Auschqitz-Birkenau death camp.

All survivors were invited to invited to come to the commemoration at the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

An exhibit of paintings by Levas Saksonovas called Holocaust was unveiled on the third floor of the LJC, at the initiative of active LJC member, doctor and photo artists Robertas Skalskis and social programs director Žana Skudovičienė. The artist’s son Danilias and art historian and researched Vera Kalmykova presented the exhibit.

Daniiilas Saksonovas said his father was inspired to create works on the topic of the Holocaust many years ago after seeing a photograph of children condemned to death. “Art helped him to live through this emotional agitation. This is how his works in which he remembers millions of people murdered during World War II were created.”

Curator Vera Kalmykova said the Holocaust series was important to everyone in terms of empathy and enabling a first-hand experience. She said Levas Saksonovas’s main goal was to give form to emotion in his art works.

The exhibit will remain on display at the Lithuanian Jewish Community for three more weeks into mid-February.