History of the Jews in Lithuania

Lithuanian Media on Children’s Experiences of the Ghetto: to Live to Tell the Story

Vaikiškos geto istorijos – išgyventi ir pasakoti

Children’s Experiences of the Ghetto: to Live to Tell the Story
by Jūratė Važgauskaitė
manoteises.lt

“Wednesday the 10th of December. It dawned on me that today is my birthday. Today I became 15 years old. You hardly realize how time flies. It, the time, runs ahead unnoticed and presently we realize, as I did today, for example, and discover that days and months go by, that the ghetto is not a painful, squirming moment of a dream which constantly disappears, but is a large swamp in which we lose our days and weeks…In my daily ghetto life it seems to me that I live normally but often I have deep qualms. Surely I could have lived better. Must I day in day out see the walled-up ghetto gate, must I in my best years see only the one little street, the few stuffy courtyards?” So wrote Yitzchak Rudashevski, a student at the Real Gymnasium in Vilnius, a talented writer and a prisoner of the Vilnius ghetto.

Rudaševskio dienoraštis

The ghetto swallowed up the life of this young man, leaving us only his diary. A diary which reveals the personal world of a young man who grew up too soon and experienced terrible experiences.

Full treatment in Lithuanian here.

Remembering the Murdered Jewish Community of Ukmergė

Commemorative ceremony to remember the Jewish community murdered during the Holocaust in Ukmergė

12:00 noon, Sunday, September 4, 2016
Pivonija forest, Ukmergė

Sponsored by the Lithuanian Jewish Community, the Goodwill Foundation and the Ukmergė Jewish Community

Lithuanian Citizenship for Litvaks

According to various reports in the Israeli media, there has been a sharp increase in South African Litvak applications for Lithuanian citizenship.

Some authors have even mentioned some sort of “Lithuanian Citizenship Programme,” whose existence is unknown to the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

Because of the seemingly increased interest, we are placing some of our earlier reporting back at the top of page one of the English version of the webpage.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind readers the amendment to the Lithuanian law on citizenship, the initiative of both the Lithuanian Jewish Community and the Lithuanian parliament, only removed and changed language which might have led to discrimination against Jews and Litvaks by individual public servants. There is no language about welcoming Litvaks with open arms, unfortunately. The amended law only levels the playing field to make sure Litvaks are treated equally with ethnic Lithuanians and others in the application process.

While the law doesn’t express welcoming Litvaks with open arms, the Lithuanian Jewish Community does welcome Litvaks from around the world, including South Africa, to become members, and does support Litvaks’ bids for Lithuanian citizenship. It has been our honor to have played a part in the amended legislation signed into law by the president of Lithuania last month.

LJC Chairwoman on Lithuanian Citizenship Law: Why Is It So Important to Livaks?

F.Kukliansky apie pilietybės įstatymą. Kodėl jis litvakams toks svarbus?

Articles on this web page and the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s facebook section about citizenship for Litvaks have been the subject of great interest. Thousands of people around the world are reading everything written about citizenship. Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky therefore would like to talk about why this issue is of such tremendous importance to Litvaks.

Many Litvaks died during the Holocaust and they are now scattered around the world. These people identify themselves with Lithuania, but have lost Lithuanian citizenship. Truly this is not just a moral issue, but also a legal one. We are talking about Jews who survived the Holocaust, and truly no one rescinded their citizenship in the concentration camps. No one sent them to the concentration camps with their passports. They were deported, isolated and murdered as Jews, not as citizens of Lithuania. Of those who were deported to Siberia, likewise no one asked for their Lithuanian citizenship, but deported them because they owned property, or were firefighters or volunteer soldiers. Thus arises the legitimate question: when did these people lose Lithuanian citizenship, when was it taken away from them?

Reading the laws of restored Independent Lithuania, we see Jews were deprived of Lithuanian citizenship during in already independent Lithuania, when the law on citizenship was adopted. Many Jews who survived the war and the Holocaust went to their ethnic homeland, Israel, Jews who consider themselves citizens of Lithuania but who, when the Republic of Lithuania law on citizenship was adopted in 1991, which clearly states Lithuanian citizenship is lost upon acquisition of citizenship of another state, lost that citizenship.

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President Signs Citizenship Amendment for Litvaks into Law

grybauskaite

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė signed into law amendments to the country’s citizenship law on June 6, 2016. The parliament adopted the amendment to impose stricter language to insure Litvaks and others are able to obtain Lithuanian citizenship without greater bureaucratic obstacles. A copy of the act of law is provided below in Lithuanian.

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Lithuanian Parliament Passes Amendment to Ensure Citizenship for Litvaks

The Lithuanian parliament Thursday adopted amendments to Lithuania’s citizenship law to ensure the rights to citizenship of Jews who left Lithuania between the two world wars and their descendants. The vote was 98 for, none against and four abstentions. The amendments will come into force after president Dalia Grybauskaitė signs them into law. The new legislation was introduced to parliament this week and were scheduled for fast-track consideration and debate. The new language specifies citizenship is restored to an individual who left Lithuania before March 11, 1990, the date Lithuania formally declared independence from the Soviet Union, except for cases where the individual left Lithuania to live in another part of the Soviet Union after June 15, 1940, the date the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. The current law on citizenship allows those who left Lithuania before March 11, 1990, to hold dual citizenship.

“I very much welcome the change in the law, and I am certain the Lithuanian state has lost nothing at all, and on the contrary, has received much more, a good name and living potential,” Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky told BNS.

One of the authors of the new language, conservative opposition leader MP Andrius Kubilius, noted the current regulations needed to be better defined because Migration Department staff and the courts had begun to demand Litvaks provide proof they or their ancestors were persecuted in Lithuania between the wars. The new language makes it explicit that “withdrawal” or “flight” from Lithuania and “leaving the country” are all used synonymously and people in both alleged categories are included in the right to restoration of citizenship.

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Maya Pennington at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Thursday

mayapenn

Maya Pennington and the Hive!

Come… Hear… Fall in Love!

At 6:00 P.M. this Thursday, August 4, at the Lithuanian Jewish Community (Pylimo street no. 4, Vilnius)

About Maya

Singer, actress, composer.

Born in Jerusalem, Maya began learning music when she was 5. She graduated from the Ruben Academy for music and dance High School (majoring in Baroque flute), later studyied jazz voice and multi-disciplinary composition at the Academy of Music and Rimon. In order to supplement her acting training, she took part in courses held by Sadna’ot Habama with teachers from the Royal Academy of Music and Guildford and with teachers specializing in various acting methods. She toured internationally with the a cappella group Voca People (2009-2013), and performed as a soloist with a wide variety of performances, ranging from several performances with the Be’er Sheva sinfonietta to the international Red Sea Jazz Festival 2008, the Jerusalem Jazz Festival 2006, etc. and as a recording artist on several albums, including Ittai Rosenbaum’s “Between Waters and Waters” (2009).

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LJC Statement about the Seventh Fort in Kaunas

Statement by the Lithuanian Jewish Community concerning Cnaan Liphshiz’s article “This Lithuanian Concentration Camp Is Now a Wedding Venue” published at http://www.jta.org/2016/07/24/news-opinion/world/lithuanian-concentration-camp-is-now-a-wedding-venue

The Lithuanian Jewish Community thanks the author of the article and the news agency who have again brought attention to the problematic situation at the Seventh Fort in Kaunas. We also feel it is our duty to explain and add to some of the facts and circumstances brought up in the article.

In June and July of 1941 a concentration camp was set up at the Seventh Fort where up to 5,000 people were murdered, mainly Jews resident in Kaunas. During the Soviet era the fort was used for military purposes and the exact location of the mass grave was unknown and inaccessible to the wider public. In 2009 the Lithuanian State Property Fund, which had ownership of the complex, allowed it to be privatized. The Lithuanian Jewish Community never approved of this decision and numerous times wee expressed our position that this was a huge mistake which couldn’t be allowed to happen at similar sites. In any event, after the fort buildings were privatized, the new owner, Karo paveldo centras [Military Heritage Center], received the right to lease the land around the buildings, which belongs to the state. The mass grave site, whose exact location was not known then, thus fell within territory controlled by a private corporate entity.

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Sulamita Lermanaitė-Gelpernienė Would Be 90 Tomorrow

Antanas Sutkus
photo: Antanas Sutkus

Sulamita Lermanaitė-Gelpernienė would have celebrated her 90th birthday tomorrow, July 28. People who knew her remember her.

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…After being graduated from the Vilnius Conservatory, she became a pianist, a concert performer and a concert master at the Lithuanian Conservatory.

Lithuanian Music Academy professor and cathedral head Leonidas Melnikas told [the magazine] Muzikos Barai about Sulamita Lermanaitė-Gelpernienė whom he met when he went to work at the Music Academy as a young man. The professor spoke with the reporter Asta Linkevičiūtė. An excerpt is provided below.

What sort of person, colleague, fellow worker was she?

This was a person to whom you could always go to ask for help of a professional nature, whom you could ask about something, who always sincerely offered advice. She gave advice on how to come up with a repertoire, what material to teach during the school year, how to educate students. Professional communication with her was important human communication and also very pleasant. She was an active member of the cathedral, a real patriot of the collective, she was a fan of the cathedral and the students. The people around Gelpernienė always felt her attentiveness, interest and support.

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Fayerlakh Kindles Spirit of Litvak Culture

Larisa Fajerlech

The Lithuanian song and dance ensemble Fayerlakh has been around for four and a half decades now and for the last 18 years has been led by the energetic Larisa Vyšniauskienė. The group which celebrates Litvak traditions is a frequent guest at different holiday celebrations in Lithuania but also performs abroad. Fayerlakh is one of the oldest ethnic community folklore collectives in Lithuania. It was formed in 1971 as a continuation of the Jewish cultural volunteer movement which was reborn after the war in Lithuania in 1956.

“It’s no accident this revival happened in Lithuania first, since even after the war in which millions of Jewish people were exterminated, there was still strong expressions of anti-Semitism in Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia. All sorts of low-lifes rise to the surface during wars, of course,” Vyšniauskienė said.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Work Continues to Remove Jewish Headstones from Power Station

transformatorine-olandu-gatveje-5550721510382
The transformer substation before removal work began. Photo by Lukas Balandis, courtesy 15min.lt

More than a year after a Vilnius resident reported his discovery an electric substation on Olandų street was constructed using Jewish gravestones, and following the announcement this June removal work had begun, the site is now littered with bits of headstones partially surrounded by a simple wire fence and some plastic tape. Most of the fragments are marked with graffiti on at least one surface, and several piles of larger pieces contain partial inscriptions in Hebrew characters, see pictures below.

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Israeli Media Report on Parties at Seventh Fort in Kaunas

7thfort

Vilnius, July 25, BNS—Parties held at the Seventh Fort in Kaunas have received attention by the media in Israel following efforts last year to resolve conflicts between the fort’s owners and Jews concerned about the Jewish mass grave discovered there several years ago.

Cultural heritage protection specialists say there haven’t been any complaints recently about unethical activities at the Seventh Fort, and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said the Israeli press was just bringing up “old stories.”

Discussion of entertainment events at the Seventh Fort came up last year when the Cultural Heritage Department sent the fort’s owners a letter calling upon them not to hold celebrations, games or similar events there.

An article in the Jerusalem Post Monday told the story of the fort’s privatization, the fee charged visitors to the museum territory there and parties held there despite the discovery there in 2011 of a Jewish mass grave.

The article said the Seventh Fort is a popular venue for graduation parties and wedding receptions and the space is available to be used for parties, for cooking on campfires and to host summer camps for children.

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This Lithuanian Concentration Camp is Now a Wedding Venue

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A film crew preparing to record at the former concentration camp known as the Seventh Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, on July 12, 2016. (JTA/Cnaan Liphshiz)

KAUNAS, Lithuania (JTA) — In this drab city 55 miles west of Vilnius, there are few heritage sites as mysterious and lovely looking as the Seventh Fort.

This 18-acre red-brick bunker complex, which dates to 1882, features massive underground passages that connect its halls and chambers. Above ground, the hilltop fortress is carpeted with lush grass and flowers whose yellow blooms attract bees and songbirds along with families who come here to frolic in the brief Baltic summer.

It’s also a popular venue for graduation parties and wedding receptions, complete with buffets and barbecues, as well as summer camps for children who enjoy the elaborate treasure hunts around the premises.

Most of the visitors are unaware that they are playing, dining and celebrating at a former concentration camp.

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Commemoration of Holocaust Victims in Biržai and Molėtai in August*

Biržai: Commemorative ceremony to remember the Jewish community annihilated in the Holocaust, 11:00 A.M. on August 28.

Molėtai: Procession from the Molėtai synagogue to the mass murder site (~1.5 km) where 2,000 local Jews were murdered, marking the 75th anniversary of that event.

*There is a possibility the LJC might be able to provide transportation from Vilnius for those wishing to attend these events. Please contact info@lzb.lt or call 8 5 2613 003 before August 8 if you need transportation.

Preparations Under Way for Švenčionėliai Mass Murder Site Renovation

Ruošiamasi Švenčionėlių masinių žydų žudynių vietos tvarkymui

Work to renovate the Švenčionėliai mass murder site under the current plan is scheduled to begin in August and September, Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moisiejus Šapiro says. The period from June to November of 1941 was the most horrible and tragic period in the genocide, when about 80% of Jews in Lithuania were murdered. A ghetto was established in Švenčionys and mass murder operations were begun there. According to different sources, 7,000 to 8,000 Jews were shot across the Žeimena River in Švenčionėliai. A memorial marks the site.

Determining the exact identity of those murdered and buried near Švenčionėliai has been fraught with difficulty. After approaching numerous archives, only the names of seven Holocaust victims buried there were found. Chairman Moisiejus Šapiro is asking Holocaust survivors from the Švenčionys region and the small shtetls there and their children, grandchildren and relatives, wherever they might live now, to tell their stories and send him the names and surnames of those murdered at Švenčionėliai

He can be reached by email at moisa50@mail.ru

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Israeli Antiquities Authority Reports Major Finds in Lithuania

2.Historical with team
Photo: Ezra Wolfinger/NOVA

Historical Discovery in Lithuania: The Escape Tunnel of the “Burning Brigade” in Ponar (Paneriai) Has Been Rediscovered

For the first time since the Holocaust the famous tunnel used by the prisoners of Ponar to escape from the Nazis has been located using new technologies for underground predictive scanning.

In an exciting new discovery using electric resistivity tomography at the Ponar massacre site near Vilnius in Lithuania, the escape tunnel used by the so called “burning brigade” to elude captivity and certain death at the hands of the Nazis has been pinpointed.

Some 100,00 people, of whom 70,000 were Jews originating in Vilna and the surrounding area, were massacred and thrown into pits in the Ponar forest near the Lithuanian capital during World War II. With the retreat of the German forces on the eastern front and the advance of the Red Army, a special unit was formed in 1943 with the task of covering up the tracks of the genocide. In Ponar this task was assigned to a group of 80 prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp.

At night the prisoners were held in a deep pit, previously used for the execution of Vilna’s Jews, while during the day they worked to open the mass graves, pile up the corpses on logs cut from the forest, cover them with fuel and incinerate them. All the while their legs were shackled and the worked in the full knowledge that on the completion of their horrendous task, they, too, would be murdered by their captors. Some of the workers decided to escape by digging a tunnel from the pit that was their prison. For three months they dug a tunnel some 35 meters in length, using only spoons and their hands. On the night of April 15, 1944, the escape was made. The prisoners cut their leg shackles with a nail file, and 40 of them crawled through the narrow tunnel. Unfortunately they were quickly discovered by the guards and many were shot. Only 15 managed to cut the fence of the camp and escape into the forest. Twelve reached partisan forces and survived the war.

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Ponar Escape Tunnel Found

Mokslininkai Lietuvoje rado tunelį, kuriuo žydai bėgo nuo nacių

An international group of scholars has completed nearly two weeks of archaeological digging at two sites of importance to Lithuanian Jewish history. They looked for a tunnel known from Holocaust testimonies and attempted to confirm information about the Great Synagogue and surrounding buildings in Vilnius. They used new non-invasive techniques: ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography. The international group of scholars included scientists from Israel, Canada, the US and Lithuania. Project leader Dr. John Seligman is the head of the archaeological digging department of the Israeli Antiquities Service. US student volunteers helped at the sites. Some were in Eastern Europe and Lithuania for the first time.

Full story in Lithuanian on Vilnius University’s web site.

Jewish Cultural Event in Anykščiai

The A. Baranauskas and A. Vienuolis-Žukauskas Memorial Museum invites the public to come to the Old Town in Anykščiai, Lithuania, where a celebration of Jewish Culture will be held from 10:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. on July 23.

Synagogue Square music stage: At 11 the Rakija Klezmer Orkestar will perform. At 12:15 tenor Rafailas Karpis takes the stage, followed by Arkadiujus Gotesmanas’s mini-play Story of a Man of God at 1:15. At 2:15 Judita Leitaitė and Jurijus Suchanovas perform songs.

The kosher food restaurant Rishon operates on Sinagogos and S. Daukanto streets and offers Jewish treats, souvenirs and books.

An entire human life-span has passed since the summer of 1941, when Jewish song and prayer went silent in the Anykščiai Old Town, the wind carried off forever the smell of their baking bread and dust covered well-beaten tracks. Jewish names and faces now return to Anykščiai.

Ellen Cassedy to Speak in Vilnius

Ellen Cassedy to Speak in Vilnius

The Jewish cultural and information center in Vilnius Old Town is proud to continue its brand new summer series of mini seminars in English for the local and international communities, a series of one-hour free and open forums where harmonious exchange of views, traditions and information becomes a fun part of your week.

All are welcome, free coffee at first event; cafe onsite with choice of bagel snacks and drinks available for purchase.

Meeting: Thursday night, July 28, 2016, from 6 to 7 P.M at the Jewish Cultural and Information Center, Mesiniu 3, Vilnius

website http://www.jewishcenter.lt/

facebook https://www.facebook.com/%c5%bdyd%c5%b3-kult%c5%abros-ir-informacijos-centras-136849083044494/

Topic: Jewish Vilne

a lecture, question and answer session with Ellen Cassedy, author of We Are Here, has explored Lithuania’s encounter with its Jewish heritage for ten years. Her book is the winner
of numerous awards. She is a frequent speaker about the Holocaust, Lithuania and Jewish culture.

www.ellencassedy.com