Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator for implementing strategies to combat anti-Semitism and foster Jewish life in Europe, visited the Vilnius ghetto and other memorial locations Wednesday, the Lithuanian Jewish Community reported.

She called attention to the poor state of monuments during the tour and called for more care and maintenance of such sites in Lithuania.

LJC staff member and guide Viljamas Žitkauskas provided the guided tour and told the visiting official about the 700-year history shared by Lithuanians and Jews, the importance of Vilnius as the Jerusalem of the North and the ruins left in the wake of the Holocaust.

LJC chairwoman Fainia Kukliansky accompanied von Schnurbein on the walking tour and said: “Vilnius is special in that it’s not enough to just see it. The buildings, the statues, even the paving stones have a deep and significant history. You have to hear Vilnius. I am pleased von Schnurbein found time in her busy schedule to visit the most important sites and to learn about our history, culture and traditions.”

Katharina von Schnurbein placed a small stone and laid flowers at a monument commemorating the ghetto partisans. She pointed out some of the statues and important Jewish cultural sites are in poor shape with faded inscriptions difficult to read. She called for greater attention to be paid to this material heritage and said in Germany a day is set aside once per year for repairing and maintaining Jewish memorials and the areas around them.

Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said financing isn’t allocated in Lithuania for keeping up and protecting monuments, buildings and synagogues recalling Jewish history, and that this all accomplished through private initiative. “We are grateful to all the people who care about history and culture, who help preserve all of this on their own time with their own work or through financial aid,” she said.

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invited Katharina von Schnurbein to visit Lithuania. It is the first time she has visited Lithuania. As well as celebrating Rosh Hashanah with the Lithuanian Jewish Community, she also met with the prime minister, foreign minister, an advisor to the president and the director of the controversial Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Residents of Lithuania, and also took part in Kaunas Capital of European Culture 2022 events in Kaunas.

Full article in Lithuanian here European Commission press release here.