Seimas to mark the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto

Press release, 19 September 2023

During its plenary sitting on Thursday, 21 September 2023, at 10 a.m., the Seimas will hold a commemorative ceremony dedicated to marking the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto and honouring the memory of thousands of those who were killed.

The day of the 23rd of September, 1943, marked the date when the Vilna Ghetto was liquidated. Out of almost 40,000 of its Jewish prisoners, only some 2,000 to 3,000 people managed to survive to see the end of the Nazi occupation. In 1994, the 23rd of September was declared the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews dedicated to paying tribute to the victims of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in 1943.

During World War II, the Nazis and their local collaborators murdered approximately 94 % out of a total of more than 200,000 Lithuanian citizens of Jewish origin.

The commemorative ceremony will feature speeches by Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas; Faina Kukliansky, Chairwoman of the Jewish Community of Lithuania; Dani Dayan, Chairman of the Yad Vashem (World Holocaust Remembrance Center) Directorate; Samuel Bak, a Vilnius-born Jewish writer and painter who survived the Holocaust (video recording); Liudvika Pociūnienė, Member of the Seimas and granddaughter of Stefanija Paliulytė-Ladygienė, a Righteous Among the Nations and Member of the Seimas in 1926–1927; Dr Zigmas Vitkus, a historian, research fellow at the Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology of Klaipėda University, and author of a scientific monograph titled Forest of Memory: Ponar in History, Culture and Politics; Vanesa Ražinskytė, a public activist and member of the Jewish Community of Šiauliai District; and Emanuelis Zingeris, founder of the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, Signatory to the Act of Independence, and Member of the Seimas.

The commemorative ceremony (in the Lithuanian language) will be broadcast live on the Seimas website, the television channel Seimas – tiesiogiai (Seimas Live), the Seimas’ accounts on Facebook and YouTube, as well as on the LRT channel.

Rimas Rudaitis, Adviser, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]