Declaration of the Government of the Slovak Republic on the 80th anniversary of the so called Jewish Code
President’s Office to Hold Concert Commemorating 80th Anniversary of Holocaust in Lithuania
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is pleased to announce a concert by St. Christopher chamber orchestra from Vilnius and other classical, jazz and folk performers to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in Lithuania.
Program:
Premiere of Symphony from the Jerusalem of the North by composer Jievaras Jasinskis
Special guest: Israeli multi-instrumentalist Yaron Cherniak
The concert begins at 7:00 P.M. on Thursday, September 23, in the courtyard of the President’s Office at Daukanto street no. 3 in Vilnius (gate opens at 6:00 P.M.).
Prior registration before September 20 and proof of vaccination(s) at the gate required. Register here.
Invitation to Remember and Honor the Large Jewish Community of Švenčionys Murdered in the Holocaust
It has become a tradition now to meet on the first Sunday in October at the Menorah in the park in Švenčionys to remember and honor the large Jewish community of Švenčionys who had their own culture and traditions, and to remember their tragic fate.
I am please to invite everyone to attend the Holocaust commemoration at the Menorah statue in the Švenčionys city park marking the boundary of the Švenčionys ghetto. The commemoration starts at 11:00 A.M. on October 3, 2021.
Program:
Courage of Rescuers Lesson to Us All
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda held the annual ceremony at the President’s Office September 14 to award rescuers of Jews from the Holocaust and their descendants the Lithuanian Order of the Life-Saver’s Cross.
“Every September as we mark the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide, we pay respect to memory of Lithuania’s Jewish citizens murdered during World War II. We also honor the rescuers of Jews, those people who dared oppose the occupational regime without regard to the mortal danger this posed to them and their families,” he said at the ceremony.
The Lithuanian president recalled the historical context in which these rescuers operated, with anti-Semitism dripping from the pages of the press, the mass murder of Jews underway. Despite this, they dared hide the condemned Jews and resist the occupational regime.
Pope Francis Expresses Shame over Slovakian Holocaust Victims
Photo: The Pope’s visit to Slovakia and meeting with members of the Jewish community was called historic.
“Here, in this place, the name of God was dishonored,” Pope Francis said at a Holocaust memorial in Bratislava. During World War II Slovakia was governed by a Nazi puppet regime headed by Catholic priest Jozef Tiso.
Pope Francis paid tribute on Monday to the thousands of Slovak Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.
The comments came during the pontiff’s official visit to Slovakia against the backdrop of accusations around the Catholic Church’s role in Holocaust atrocities in Slovakia.
What did the pope say?
Speaking at a former Jewish neighborhood in the capital Bratislava, Pope Francis sharply criticized “the frenzy of hatred” in World War II and continuing anti-Semitism.
Full story here.
Holocaust Commemoration in Krakės in Central Lithuania
Krakės, a small town in the Kėdainiai district in central Lithuania, marked the 80th anniversary of the onset of the Holocaust there on September 2. On that date in 1941 about 1,125 Jews from Krakės and the surrounding settlements Gudžiūnai, Pociūnėliai, Baisiogala, Grinkiškis and Dotnuva were murdered at Peštiniukai village near Krakės.
The commemoration included a march with local high school students and the reading of the names of the victims at the mass murder and mas grave site in Peštiniukai village.
Šiauliai Jewish Community to Commemorate Holocaust Victims at Vilkiaušis Forest
The Šiauliai Jewish Community has announced a program of Holocaust commemoration events scheduled for Sunday, September 12, beginning with a procession from the parking lot next to the Vilkiaušis Forest.
Program:
11:00 A.M. Meet at the parking lot next to Vilkiaušis Forest. Procession to the Jewish genocide site in the Vilkiaušis Forest. Ceremony to honor the victims.
12:30 P.M. Leave for Žagarė. Commemoration on market square.
2:00 P.M. Procession to Naryškinas Park.
4:00 P.M. Ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania.
4:20 P.M. Leave for Jewish cemetery in Žagarė.
5:00 P.M. Rafailas Karpis and Darius Mažintas’s artistic program “Kaddish for the Dead” at Jaunimo street no. 1 in Žagarė.
Alytus Marks 80th Anniversary of Onset of Holocaust
Wednesday the city of Alytus south of Vilnius marked the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust with a procession before noon from the Old Town to a mass murder site in the Vidzgirdas Forest.
A commemoration ceremony was held at the memorial at the Holocaust site.
Jewish community members from Kaunas and Vilnius, Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, MPs, local government officials, foreign ambassadors, students from schools in the area and local residents participated.
Following the ceremony the renovated synagogue building on Kauno street was opened as the new home of the Alytus Audio-Visual Arts Center with a concert by Rakija Klezmer Orkestar.
Concert to Commemorate Holocaust Victims and Vilnius Ghetto Liquidation
I am very glad that Litvak Leopold Godowsky’s sonnets 1 and 2 will reach the wider world. I would like to inform you my concert on September 23 at the Gaveau in Paris will be dedicated to Holocaust victims and to the date September 23, 1943, the date of the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto. Please find the program attached.
Sincerely yours,
Mūza Rubackytė
Holocaust Mass Murder Memorial Vandalized
While Lithuanians and Litvaks spent much of June, July, August and now September of this year marking the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in locations around the country, vandals attacked a Holocaust memorial in the Kretinga region for the second time in two years.
The memorial marks the spot where about 700 local Jews were murdered in 1941. Kretinga alderwoman Sigita Riepšaitė said the monument was first attacked two years ago just four months after it was erected, and that the cost of repairs was roughly half the total cost for the monument to begin with, which was around 900 euros.
Lithuania’s LNK News reported the alderwoman had made a police report regarding the metal plaque attached to a large stone at Kviečiai village in the Girėlė Forest. Riepšaitė said the police were taking the report seriously at least partially because this is a repeat crime.
Remembering the Mass Murder in Pivonija Forest
The traditional commemoration of Holocaust victims took place on the first Sunday in September in the Pivonija Forest outside Ukmergė (Vilkomir). This is the third-largest mass murder site in Lithuania. Members of the Lithuanian, Kaunas and Ukmergė Jewish Communities took part as did representatives of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania, various Tolerance Centers around the country and representatives of the Road of Memory 1941-2021 commemoration project. A large group travelled from Vilnius for the event, including Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yossef Avni-Levy, US ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist, German embassy cultural attaché Anja Luther, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, members of Lithuanian parliament Viktoras Pranckietis, Juozas Varžgalys and Emanuelis Zingeris and Ukmergė regional administration mayor Rolandas Janickas
New Jewish Calendar Available
The Lithuanian Jewish Community is happy to announce our annual Jewish calendar has been printed and is ready for distribution. This year’s calendar, for the year 5782, features the communities and people who lived in Lithuania before the Holocaust, with period photography from shtetls across the country. The format this year is smaller and hopefully more convenient and functional but contains the features from past years, including local times for Sabbath, fasts and holidays. It will be made available to the public starting Thursday, September 9, at the Bagel Shop Café.
Molėtai Marks 80th Anniversary of Holocaust with Commemorative March, New Monument
The Lithuanian city of Molėtai, located about 60 miles north of the capital Vilnius, marked the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust on August 29. On that date in 1941 more than half the population of Molėtai, the local Jewish community, was murdered.
Five years ago a large Jewish commemorative march was held in Molėtai, attracting international attention. Tzvi Kritzer, the organizer of that event, was made an honorary citizen of Molėtai by the local municipality.
This year’s event began with the unveiling of a monument at the site where the town’s four synagogues once stood. The monument is a commemorative plaque affixed to a large field stone in the town center with a silhouette of the former synagogues and inscriptions in several languages saying this is where the synagogues once stood. Saulius Pilinkus, an art historian who was directing this event, called upon Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Molėtai regional administration mayor Saulius Jauneika, screenwriter and cartoonist Ilja Bereznickas and the creator of the plaque, Aurimas Širvys, to help in the unveiling.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, administration mayor Saulius Jauneika and Molėtai Regional History Museum director Viktorija Kazlienė both said Molėtai is striving to restore historical memory.
Condolences
In sadness we report the death of Righteous Gentile Morta Kalendraitė Jakutienė at the age of 97.
My Grandfather’s Crimes against Humanity
Photo: Courtesy Silvia Foti
A family memoir gets surprising reactions from Lithuanians, Russians and Jews.
by Silvia Foti, Aug. 25, 2021 6:14 P.M. ET, wsj.com
I grew up the proud granddaughter of a Lithuanian war hero who fought against Communists. My grandfather Jonas Noreika has a school and streets named after him. When my mother on her deathbed in 2000 asked me to write a story about her heroic father, I enthusiastically agreed.
Unfortunately, as I dug deeper I discovered to my horror that my grandfather was also a Holocaust perpetrator involved in murdering at least 8,000 Jews. On my story’s release, Russians wanted to use me, Lithuanians vilified me and Jews embraced me.
My grandfather wrote an order on August 22, 1941, to send thousands of Jews to a ghetto in Žagerė where they were slaughtered. My family story has brought this to the forefront, toppling Lithuania’s image as an innocent bystander in the Holocaust.
Five Years On Molėtai Marches Again
Five years ago Marius Ivaškevičius wrote of the need to remember the exterminated Jewish community of Molėtai, a town about 60 miles north of Vilnius. His call to mobilize with a march through the town became the second-most popular item ever on this website (the most popular being a reprint of an article about the South African Jewish community which continues to attract hits years later). The march itself was a watershed moment in Lithuanian Holocaust consciousness, drawing ethnic Lithuanians from around the country and the world together with Lithuanian Jews and Jews from South Africa, Uruguay, Great Britain, the USA and other countries. Several thousand people turned up on the town square and listened to the different speeches before marching to the mass murder site across town there.
The march was covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Jerusalem Post and other publications.
The march is to be repeated this year. August 29 is the date all Jews from Molėtai were murdered. On that “Day of Wrath” they were marched under armed guard two kilometers from one of the synagogues to the killing ground.
Happy Birthday to Idelis Gurvičius
A very happy birthday to LJC member of long standing and active Seniors Club member Idelis Gurvičius who celebrated his 90th on August 23. Mazl tov. Bis 120!
Gesher Club Offers Tour
The Gesher Club at the Lithuanian Jewish Community is offering a two-day tour of the Panemunė castles and the Curonian Spit on August 28 and 29. The group will visit the Pažaislis monastery, the Raudondvaris manor estate, Vilkija, the Veliuona earth-mounds and the Raudonė and Panemunė castles. They will also visit the Holocaust memorial and Alley of Synagogues in Jurbarkas, with rest and an overnight stay in Klaipėda with an evening tour of the Klaipėda Old Town. Following breakfast on Sunday the group will move on to the Curonian Spit with visits to Juodkrantė, the Dead Dunes and Nida, followed by the return trip to Vilnius. The tour will be conducted by long-time LJC member and professional tour guide Markas Psonikas. For more information and to register, call+37067881514 or send an mail to zanas@sc.lzb.lt. For more about Markas’s tours, see here.
EJC Slams Polish President, Calls Anti-Restitution Law Undemocratic, Unjust, Immoral
Saturday, August 14, 2021–European Jewish Congress president Moshe Kantor slammed the ratification of a bill passed by the Polish parliament which will make it far harder for Jews to claim restitution on properties appropriated and stolen during the Holocaust era.
“This law is undemocratic, unjust and immoral,” Kantor said. “This is not bringing order to chaos as president Duda claims, it is making legal what should be illegal and is merely legalizing theft. The president had an opportunity to right the wrong created by the parliament. He could have shown moral clarity and leadership, but he chose not to.
“Moreover, this law will also further highlight Poland’s unique position as the only country in the region which makes Holocaust restitution impossible and runs counter to its international commitments. It is outrageous that someone who survived the Holocaust, who will be in their later years, will still be deprived justice by this cruel, illegitimate and discriminatory law.”
Condolences
The Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camp Prisoners is sad to announce the death today of former Minsk ghetto prisoner Markas Buslovich at the age of 84. Our deepest condolences to his sister Inesa, also a member of the Union.