Holocaust – Lithuanian Jewish Community

Samuel Bak Presents Catalog

Samuel Bak himself and a panel of experts will launch a Bak catalog in Lithuanian on the first day of the Vilnius Book Fair. The catalog of his artwork is called “Gydantys simboliai.”

Joining via video link from the USA, Litvak painter from Vilnius Samuel Bak will speak with Bak Museum senior curator Ieva Šadzevičienė, illustrator Jokūbas Jacovskis and others with synchronous translations in Lithuanian and English.

Time: 2:00 P.M., February 27
Place: conference hall 5.5, Litexpo building, Laisvės prospect no. 5, Vilnius

2025-02-262025-02-26

Criminal, Trash and Enemy of the State

by Grant Gochin

All I sought was information about the murder of my Lithuanian family during the Holocaust. This was my entanglement with the government of Lithuania.

Most barbarians shout about their hideous torture and murder of innocents as a matter of pride. Palestinian terrorists murder Jews and boast about it. They have parades with slain bodies. They hand out candy, and dance with joy, thinking they have done something wonderful. They haven’t.

During the Holocaust, Lithuanians murdered Jews with an even greater level of ferocity and depravity than Hamas currently displays. Their conduct was reprehensible and not even close to human. The Lithuanian slaughter was almost complete. They murdered 96.4% of all Jews they could reach. The current dream of Gaza is the replication of the Lithuanian Holocaust.

2025-02-24

Condolences

Marian Turski died February 14. He was born in Druskininkai in 1926. A survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald and was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in 1945. He resettled in Poland where he advocated for the Communist regime and served as editor of the newspaper Sztandar Młodych and then as chief of the history department of the weekly Polytika, and authored at least seven books about the Holocaust and Communist politics in Poland. Our deepest condolences to his surviving daughter Joanna.

2025-02-202025-02-20

Condolences

Garij Rudštein passed away February 15. He was born in 1943. He was a member of the Klaipėda Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. Our deepest condolences go to his friends and surviving family members.

2025-02-19

Condolences

Antanas Segalis died February 16. He was born in 1940 and came from Kalvarija, Lithuania. He was a member of the Lithuanian Jewish Community and a client of the Saul Kagan Welfare Center. We extend our sincere condolences to his son and family.

2025-02-19

Children of the Holocaust Project Takes Flight in Palanga

A project to study the history of pre-Holocaust Lithuanian Jewish and Roma urban and rural communities has begun in Palanga. The aim is to recreate city, town, village and community history to understand how the former way of life connects with the present and future. Called “Children of the Holocaust: Illuminating the Shadows of Lithuanian History,” the Palanga Jewish Community said in a press release public understanding of the Holocaust is changing, with the history of the Jews now being told by creating a personal connection with the past.

This Lithuanian Jewish Community for implementation between 2024 and 2026 is supported by the EVZ Fund in Germany. The Palanga Jewish Community, the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga, the Old Gymnasium in Palanga, the Palanga Youth and Volunteer Center, the Sholem Aleichem ORT Gymnasium in Vilnius and the Roma Community Day Center are all partners in the project.

The goal is to encourage specific, novel, lively retellings of history to engage young people from Vilnius and Palanga. The focus is on children who were victims of the Holocaust from the Litvak and Roma ethnic communities and their experience, stories and recollections among survivors.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

2025-02-13

National Library Celebrates 100 Years of YIVO

The Martynas Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library conserves a YIVO document collection of very significant volume and content. The YIVO was established exactly a century ago in Vilnius in 1925. It is the only Vilnius Jewish institution which did not stop operating during the Holocaust and which continues to operate today. After World War II YIVO made its main headquarters at its branch in New York City. This branch took over the institute’s functions as a center for the preservation of Jewish heritage and research.

Many traces of the institute’s work survived in Vilnius: fragments of its documentation, correspondence, library collection and archives, scattered among several commemorative institutions. The National Library is conducting a study of the institute’s archives which is revealing YIVO’s origins in Vilnius and its especially fruitful period of activity in Vilnius before WWII.

The 100-year anniversary of the founding of the YIVO was noted back in 2023 in a resolution by the Lithuanian parliament as being of special significance to world culture and the National Library. Lithuanian National Library director Aušrinė Žilinskienė spoke about this at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington, D.C., on December 9, 2024. That event to mark the anniversary was organized with YIVO headquarters in New York.

The National Library is holding an event in cooperation with a large number of Lithuanian and foreign partners with a spectacular program, including the publication of books on the history of the YIVO, an international academic forum and an exhibit of textual heritage.

2025-02-122025-02-12

Israeli Speaker to Address LJC Sunday

Litvak Raffael Hletzer will speak at the Lithuanian Jewish Community Sunday. He was born in Lithuania but left for Israel with his family at a young age. He is currently the executive director of the renowned Kehilor Netaim Jewish educational program. His presentation will be about his roots in Lithuania, the upcoming holiday Tu b’Shvat and connections with the past and present. The event is free but registration is required by sending an email to zanas@sc.lzb.lt.

Time: 1:00 P.M., Sunday, February 9
Place: Room 306, Lithuanian Jewish Community, Vilnius

2025-02-062025-02-06

Remembering Sutzkever

Ambassadors from Germany, the USA and Israel and the Lithuanian Jewish Community marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by attending a play about the life of Abraham Sutzkever at the Vilnius Puppet Theater, a venue which was the Vilnius ghetto theater during the Holocaust.

Abraham Sutzkever was a Yiddish poet before, during and after the Holocaust and was imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto. He joined the underground and fought as a Jewish partisan against the German and Lithuanian Nazis. In February of 1946 he was called up as a witness at the Nuremberg trials, testifying against Franz Murer, the murderer of his mother and newborn son.

The play, “Witness,” was written by Sutzkever’s granddaughter Hadas Kalderon. Israeli actor and stand-up comic Michael Hanegbi performed the role of Sutzkever.

Lithuanian foreign minister Kęstutis Budrys introduced the play. After the play Kalderon and Hanegbi shared reminiscences of Sutzkever and their thoughts and feelings about the play itself.

2025-02-042025-02-04

Panevėžys Marks Auschwitz Anniversary: No Statute of Limitations on Holocaust, nor Memory

The Panevėžys Jewish Community marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, the date UNESCO proclaimed the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust back in 2005, with ceremonies and educational outreach.

Students from local schools attended a quiz on the Holocaust at the Panevėžys Jewish Community. Community members and chairman Gennady Kofman also met with reporter Jogintė Četkauskienė to talk about Jewish life in the city and country during WWII.

“Today it is our duty to do all we can to ensure this tragedy never happens again. That means encouraging tolerance, there is enough air for everyone on our beautiful planet. It also means courageously fighting against anti-Semitism, which is the most urgent problem in the world today,” Panevėžys Jewish Community chairman Gennady Kofman told the reporter.

He also touched upon statements made by Lithuanian MP Remigijus Žemaitaitis during the interview.

“This politician’s apathy towards the tragedy of the Jewish people and his anti-tolerance are incomprehensible. How is it possible not to think about normal, friendly relations between the different ethnic communities in Lithuania?” Kofman asked the reporter.

2025-01-30

Conservative MP Openly Wonders What Israeli Ambassador Must Think of Coalition Government

Lithuanian Conservative/Union of Christian Democrats MP Žygimantas Pavilionis attended a special concert to mark the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust held in Vilnius Monday night also attended by Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda and the ambassadors from the Netherlands and Israel. The president and the two ambassadors delivered speeches about the meaning of “Never again!” and the Israeli ambassador told the story of her family which included two survivors of Auschwitz, the date of the liberation of which back in 1945 was chosen for commemoration by UNESCO back in 2005. The concert was called Music for Future Generations: Concert for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and featured performances by Rafailas Karpis and others.

After the concert, MP Žygimantas Pavilionis posted to his facebook page:

2025-01-28

WJC President Lauder Warns Anti-Semitism that Led to Holocaust Still Threatens Global Stability

OSWIECIM, Poland–The virulent anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust is still rampant around the globe today, World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said against the backdrop of Monday’s solemn commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In a fundamental way, he added, a common thread links what happened at Auschwitz to the recent manifestations of Jew-hatred, including the October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel: the age-old hatred of Jews. Anti-Semitism “had its willing supporters then, and it has them now,” Lauder, who also serves as chair of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation and who has dedicated decades to preserving the site, said. “It was fed by the indifference of people who thought they were not affected because they were not Jewish.”

Lauder also stressed that anti-Semitic acts undermine the central tenets of civil society. “These attacks are not just targeting Jews,” he said. “They are an attack on Judeo-Christian values, which are the bedrock of Western civilization.”

He delivered his remarks alongside four Auschwitz survivors and Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum.

Full text and video here.

2025-01-282025-01-28

Šiauliai District Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Šiauliai District Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 Monday with members and friends attending the remembrance ceremony.

Actors Juozas Bindokas and Monika Šaltytė read translations of texts and poems by Abraham Sutzkever accompanied by Motiejus Dudnikas on accordeon. The composition was called “Prayer Just to Myself” detailing Sutzkever’s life before the Holocaust, being imprisoned in the Vilnius ghetto, liberation and the testimony he gave against Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.

2025-01-282025-01-28

Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community Marks International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

The Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community marked the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO back in 2005 together with teachers and students from the Gegužės Pre-gymnasium and local officials including mayor Artūras Visockas and deputy mayor Justinas Švėgžda Monday.

The commemorative ceremony began at the site of the ghetto gate at the intersection of Trakų and Ežero streets marked by a stele. Participants lit candles and placed stones and wreaths of flowers there. The commemoration then moved on to Righteous Gentiles Square with a moment of silence observed there as well for Lithuanian Righteous Gentiles. This was followed by the screening of a film about the Holocaust at the Šiauliai Regional Jewish Community and a meal in remembrance.

2025-01-282025-01-28

Condolences

Sara Radžiūnienė died January 27. She was born in 1928 and was the oldest member of the Švenčionys Jewish Community. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moshe Shapiro and the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community extend our deepest condolences to Edvardas, Vladimiras and Silvija.

2025-01-28

Kaunas News

The United Kingdom’s newly-appointed ambassador to Lithuania Elizabeth Boyles and embassy staff visited Kaunas Jewish Community chairman Gercas Žakas last week and asked him about current events in the Community and Community members’ views on political events in Lithuania and the world. Marija Oniščik guided a tour for the British delegation and Žakas of the history of Jewish Kaunas, and they were joined by the ambassadors of Japan and the Netherlands for a presentation of the new exhibits at the Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas.

2025-01-28

Letter to My Grandfather

Photo: Samuel Gochin, in Lithuanian military uniform of 5th Grand Duke Kestutis Doughboys Infantry. Source: Gochin Family Archive

by Grant Gochin

Dear Zayde,

Growing up in South Africa, you implored me to remember. Zachor. I was to remember who we Jews are, and where we came from. You showed me the photos and told me stories. You taught me only love. You asked me to visit our family cemetery in the “old country” and to recite Kaddish for our family. Zayde, I have.

So then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I travelled to the “old country,” specifically, Lithuania. Once there, my first destination was your shtetl. There was nothing Jewish remaining. They destroyed everything. Deliberately. I erected a new gravestone where I could say Kaddish.

The cemeteries were in utter disarray and in shambles. It was glaringly apparent to me that the overgrowth was intentional. No one wanted to remember that Jews had lived in Lithuania.

2025-01-272025-01-27

Pistorius Visits Ponar

German defense minister Boris Pistorius visited Ponar Wednesday to pay his respects to victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania. He was accompanied by Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky.

Pistorius said despite his tight schedule during his visit to Lithuania, he couldn’t imagine visiting the country without visiting Ponar. Ponar is a mass murder site just outside Vilnius where at least 70,000 Jews were murdered, although the number of dead is sometimes estimated much higher. Ethnic Poles and Soviet POWs were also murdered there in lesser numbers.

“That Mr. Pistorius found the time to honor victims of the Holocaust demonstrates how important it is to remember the scope of tragedy, even eighty years later, which can be caused by incautious political action and manipulation of man’s basest instincts,” Kukliansky commented.

Lithuanian national defense minister Dovile Šakalienė, German ambassador to Lithuania Cornelius Zimmermann and Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein also attended the wreath- and stone-laying ceremony.

2025-01-242025-01-24

Screening of Izaokas at Vilna Gaon Museum’s Litvak Museum

The Litvak Culture and Identity Museum will show the film Izaokas for free at 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 26. The event includes an introduction by film critic Izolda Keidošiūtė and a discussion between her and actress Severija Janušauskaitė who plays a role in the film.

The film begins with a Lithuanian murdering the Jewish man Izaokas at the garage massacre in Kaunas in 1941. The perpetrator is haunted by visions of the crime and an increasing sense of guilt for years afterwards.

The screening is in honor of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust proclaimed by UNESCO in 2005 on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. That anniversary is Monday.

The film is in Lithuanian.

Time: 4:00 P.M., Sunday, January 26
Place: Litvak Museum, Pylimo street no. 4A, Vilnius

2025-01-232025-01-23

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