The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community is marking the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, September 23, with several events this year.

At 4:00 P.M. on September 22 an exhibit will open in the exhibit hall of the Cultural Center of the Šiauliai Regional Administration located at Ventos street no. 11A in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, an exhibit of photographs by Rolandas Parafinavičius called House Spirits and by photographer S. Zakasaitė who operated in the period between the two world wars, with the combined exhibit called “Jews Then and Now.” Righteous Gentiles Pranas Grigalaitis and Ona Bielskienė will also be honored during the opening ceremony. The exhibit will run till November 5. The Cultural Center is open from 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. on week days and during scheduled events.

Additional related exhibits include an exhibit of calendars called “The Jews of Lithuania: An Indivisible Part of Our Society” running from September 6 to October 1 in the exhibition space at the Kuršėnai manor estate in Kuršėnai, Lithuania; the “Don’t Turn Your Back on the Past” exhibit of publications running from September 20 to September 30 at the Augustinas Gricius Library in Gruzdžiai and “Memory Comes of Age through the Past…” running from September 20 till October 22 at the library in Meškuičiai.

At 3:00 P.M. on September 22 a ceremony will be held to commemorate Holocaust victims at the monument to Holocaust victims in the Padarba Forest adjacent to Kuršėnai.

At 12 noon on September 23 there will be a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust victims including the recital of some of their poetry at both Šiualiai ghetto gates, the first being at the intersection of Žaligirio and Rekyvos streets and the second at the intersection of Trakų and Ežero streets next to the commemorative stone marking the location of the former ghetto gates in the city of Šiauliai.

At 1:00 P.M. on September 23 a ceremony will be held to commemorate Holocaust victims in the Ilgoji Lova Forest in the Kairiai aldermanship in the Šiauliai district.

At 4:00 P.M. there will be a candle-lighting ceremony at the commemorative plaque “In memory of the Jews who lived in Gruzdžiai” on the town square in Gruzdžiai.