The ceremony, which was held as part of the “March of the Living” to honour Holocaust victims in Paneriai, was attended by members of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Litvaks from other countries, Israel’s Ambassador to Lithuania Hagit Ben-Yaakov, as well as the Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania Alminas Mačiulis, Lithuanian politicians, diplomats, representatives of the society, youth.
Just like every year, the procession marched between the Paneriai railway station and the Paneriai Memorial, retracing the route of the Vilna Ghetto prisoners who walked to their death and massacre in the Paneriai forest.
At the Paneriai Memorial, the Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania Alminas Mačiulis, Israel’s Ambassador to Lithuania Hagit Ben-Yaakov, the Chair of the Jewish Community of Lithuania Faina Kukliansky, the former Vilna Ghetto prisoner Fania Brancovskaja, the representative of the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students Amit Belaitė gave speeches paying tribute to Holocaust victims.
At a solemn ceremony at the Government building, the Israeli Ambassador Hagit Ben-Yaakov awarded representatives of eleven families of Righteous Among the Nations, members of which saved Jews during the Second World War in Lithuania.
The Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Neris Germanas, the Chair of the Jewish Community of Lithuania Faina Kukliansky, the granddaughter of the Righteous Among the Nations Rasa Kubilienė, also the writer and Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Markas Zingeris, the painter Leonardas Gutauskas welcomed and congratulated the Righteous Among the Nations.
Juliana Zarchi and Alexander Kaplan (brother of the rescued Anita Kupric), who came from Paris especially for this ceremony, shared their memories about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
At the ceremony, the Lithuanian Foreign Vice-Minister Neris Germanas noted that at the Government building on that day one could see quite a few people, whose works and life bore witness of the significance of the promotion and protection of fundamental human values.
The Lithuanian Foreign Vice-Minister presented a keepsake gift from the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius to Danutė Selčinskaja, Head of the Righteous Gentiles Department of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, for many years of work collecting stories of Jewish rescue and for carrying out historical research.
Sergey Korablikov-Kovarsky, a guest from Israel, who was born in the Vilna Ghetto and rescued by the town’s women, presented to the Vilnius St. Christopher’s Gymnasium a picture by Leonardas Gutauskas, portraying a rescue of a baby.
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