LRT.lt: This interview is taking place on January 27, which is International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. This topic is important to you, you took part in the Road of Memory procession several times if I recall correctly. The topic of the Holocaust is sparking a great many discussions in Lithuania and it’s clear we haven’t answered many questions. Have we, Lithuania, as a state, bearing in mind the entire history, have we commemorated sufficiently the victims and rescuers?

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė: I think we haven’t fully realized over all what Jews mean in Lithuanian history. … The very scope, the understanding that 200,000 people, that the residents of the towns were in the majority the large Jewish communities which simply disappeared, someone took and wiped 200,000 people out of the picture. I came to that realization rather late.
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Regarding the Palace of Sports, it has its own specific features because it is a building which is [protected] cultural heritage, nothing new may be built there, it can only be commemorated and put to public use. I won’t hide that there are people who say we should let this building fall into ruin because there are so many off-limit areas, so let the building fall down of its own accord. This is a difficult decision, to wait for the building to fall down in the middle of the city. I don’t think we should do this, but I also don’t think some other kind of application would meet with great support.

So let’s try to go down that path and judge whether we can propose a good idea to the public for this site, which would be dedicated to Lithuanian Jewish history. Not just the Holocaust, it would simply tell the entire story of what we had over the centuries and what we lost, and that those small things which we still have could be preserved and grown.

LRT.lt: Bearing in mind what a good location this is and how there is development on all sides, aren’t you afraid real estate developers might not want to give it up?

Ingrida Šimonytė: I think residential development won’t happen there, because there is already an agreed project on how the cemetery should be put in order, and I think that project shouldn’t be changed. We are just talking about what we could do with the Palace of Sports building itself.

In my assessment, this would be a very attractive site if we were able to implement a good concept. It would also be an attraction for those who want to return to Vilnius, who want to come here and get closer to their historical roots, and I have no doubt at all we could find historians, artists and members of the public in Lithuania who would propose the main content for this idea, and then we could talk about how to implement it.

Of course, as with all such projects, there has to be a lot of discussion, and a lot of discussions with the Jewish Community, with Lithuania and Europe and, it appears, the USA. I think this would be a good way for us to exit an uncomfortable situation where we have this unmaintained thing in the middle of the city, but at the same time we would sort of be paying our debt to a history which so far hasn’t been told, and it would be good if it were.

Full text in Lithuanian of radio interview here.