Speaker of the Seimas: the Holocaust stains are a weight on the conscience of our history

Press release, 24 September 2019

On the Day of Remembrance for Jewish Victims of Genocide in Lithuania, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, attended the events to commemorate the victims of the genocide in Rūdininkų Square, territory of the former ghetto, took part in the March of the Living the Memory Road, and paid tribute to the victims at the Paneriai Memorial.

In his address at the Memorial, the Speaker of the Seimas underlined that today the comprehension of the Holocaust was an emotional challenge. ‘It is impossible to grasp what was being done to the Jewish nation. It is equally difficult to be here or to see kids’ shoes in former concentration camps that have been turned into museums. It is likewise difficult to read the last letters by those who were doomed to death containing so much futility of destiny,’ said the Speaker of the Seimas.

According to Mr Pranckietis, the human disaster which had stricken eight decades before had to teach us to discern any manifestations of evil on time.

‘Those stains are a weight on the conscience of our history and must not be removed. Let this heavy, cruel and inhumane burden of responsibility teach us how to proceed today.’

The 23rd of September, declared as the Day of Remembrance for Jewish Victims of Genocide in Lithuania, marks the ultimate liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in 1943. The Holocaust killed over 90 percent of the Jewish population in Lithuania.

Photos by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

Karolina Frolovienė, Spokesperson to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6016, e-mail: [email protected]