Press release, 22 September 2015
Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, took part in the ceremony at the Paneriai Memorial dedicated to pay tribute to the victims of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania. When delivering her speech, the Speaker stressed that the Jewish nation had always been firmly rooted in the Lithuanian soil; therefore, the genocide carried out by the German invaders was also part of the history of Lithuania.
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Photo of the Seimas Office (author Olga Posaškova) |
To forget, to delete or to ignore these experiences would be the same as to justify the crimes committed. That is why we spare no effort to make the young Lithuanian generation aware of this page of history. The sufferings of the victims of the Jewish Holocaust must be known, understood and accepted as an integral part of our past, whereas the strength of those who survived must teach all and every one of us the lesson of human dignity, Mrs Graužinienė said to the participants of the commemoration.
The Speaker of the Seimas underlined that the Holocaust Memorial Day in Lithuania was also an obligation for everyone, who lives in the country governed by the principles of freedom and democracy today, to prevent the past from repeating itself.
The Holocaust Memorial Day in Lithuania is marked annually on the 23rd of September. On that day in 1943, the Vilnius Ghetto was liquidated. The mass massacre of Jews was the gravest and the most horrific Nazi crime in Lithuania. Out of 58,000 Jews who lived in Vilnius before the war, barely 2000-3000 Jews survived to see the end of the Nazi occupation and the end of the war. Almost 200,000 Jews, representing 90 % of the total Jewish population in Lithuania, were killed across the country.
Neringa Mikėnaitė, Adviser to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6344, mob. +370 698 42 759
