Students in the 8th and 9th grades at the King Mindaugas School in Švenčionėliai in southeast Lithuania got a special lesson and tour on September 23, the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide proclaimed by the Lithuanian parliament in 1994. They gather in the foyer of the Švenčionėliai Cultural Center to hear history teacher Stanislava Černiauskienė’s lesson on the history of the Jewish people in Lithuania, and to hear Milda Petkevičienė-Dečkuvienė’s performance on violin.

The class then went to the local mass murder and commemoration site where history teacher Ona Orechovienė recounted how local Jews were murdered there and in surrounding areas.

The special history lesson for September 23 was arranged by King Mindaugas School assistant principal and history teacher Nijolė Kapačinskienė, Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Šapiro and the Švenčionėliai Cultural Center.

Photographs by Nijolė Kapačinskienė, Veronika Švogžlienė, Vaida Švalkienė