It’s been 10 years now since the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium first began carrying out joint projects to encourage tolerance, education and friendship between the peoples who call Panevėžys home. This time the project was about Holocaust commemoration in the Panevėžys region. It’s called “A Bridge between Past and Present.” The project is financed by the Goodwill Fund. Around 200 students from the upper classes participated and learned about the history of the Holocaust. The Panevėžys Jewish Community shared information with Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium pupils and administrators, history teacher Genutė Žilytė and pre-gymnasium principal Aida Adiklienė and provided the information the Panevėžys Jewish Community possesses about the Holocaust in the city and region of Panevėžys.

On May 9 a unique exhibit of work by the students opened at the pre-gymnasium including paintings, posters, photographs and photo collages. The exhibit is to be shown throughout Eastern Lithuania and is to go on display in the foyer of the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius on September 23, when the Day of the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania is observed. Upper-class students are to visit and clean up mass murder sites according to the project program, including in Kurganava forest and Žalioji forest. It’s already become a sort of tradition for pre-gymnasium students and teachers and Panevėžys Jewish Community members to get together at the end of May to clean up these sites. The pre-gymnasium took the initiative in cleaning up Jewish memorial sties in the smaller towns and villages in the Panevėžys where there are no surviving Jews, including in Pasvalys, Raguva and Ramygala. At the opening of the exhibit of student works, principal Adiklienė thanked the students for their work and the Panevėžys Jewish Community for their help and participation at school events. School Tolerance Center director and history teacher Žilytė said the drawings showed evidence of a real understanding of tolerance among the students. She explained the symbolism of the main works, saying a dove in a cage represented Jews in the ghetto, and a train with horrific cars symbolized the Dachau and Birkenau concentration camps. The black crow in one drawing was the angel of death. She also spoke about the many lessons taught about the Holocaust. The entire school turned out for the opening, including more than 300 young people. Certificates were presented to the creators of the best works.

The young people also drew pictures and made posters dedicated to the people who rescued Jews from death, at risk to their own lives and those of their families. Students from the Rožynas Pre-Gymnasium are frequent visitors at the Panevėžys Jewish Community and attend Jewish holidays. Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman said cooperation would of course continue after this latest exhibit.