The traditional commemoration of Holocaust victims took place on the first Sunday in September in the Pivonija Forest outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir). This is the third-largest mass murder site in Lithuania. Members of the Lithuanian, Kaunas and Ukmergė Jewish Communities took part as did representatives of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania, various Tolerance Centers around the country and representatives of the Road of Memory 1941-2021 commemoration project. A large group travelled from Vilnius for the event, including Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossef Avni-Levy, US ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist, German embassy cultural attaché Anja Luther, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, members of Lithuanian parliament Viktoras Pranckietis, Juozas Varžgalys and Emanuelis Zingeris and Ukmergė regional administration mayor Rolandas Janickas

Ukmergė Jewish Community chairman Artūras Taicas said: “Every year we remember this tragedy, we gather here so that it never happen again, we gather to tell the truth about the events of 1941.”

Iseris Šreibergas from the Kaunas Religious Jewish Community said kaddish.

Chairman Taicas thanked the music teacher Vilma Retienė and history teacher Vida Pulkauninkienė who came with students from their school’s Tolerance Center and who participated the eighteenth time at the annual commemoration. Their students began the new school year with a history lesson in the Pivonija Forest.