27 September 2023

Lithuanian National Library commemorates the 80th year of the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto

This year marks the 80th year of the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, which once again reminds us of the painful stages of history from which we must learn and which we must not forget.

The Vilna ghetto was established on 6 September 1941 in the Old Town of Vilnius, where a large part of the city’s Jewish community had been concentrated since ancient times. The Nazis and their local collaborators herded more than 40000 Jews into the ghetto. Mass killings of the prisoners soon followed.

On 23-24 September 1943 the Vilna ghetto was finally liquidated. Men were put into wagons and transported to Nazi concentration camps in Estonia and Germany, while women who were fit for work were transported to Latvia. Children and those who were unable to work were transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and some of the ghetto Jews were shot in Paneriai. Around 3000 more prisoners were left to work in various Nazi institutions, almost all of them shot in July 1944.

Before the establishment of the ghetto, there were about 57000 Jews living in Vilnius, but after the end of the war only about 2000 remained alive.

A specific feature of the history of the Vilna ghetto is its very active cultural life. The prisoners of the ghetto, continuing the traditions of the Lithuanian Jerusalem, even in the face of death, did not cease to take an interest in art, science and literature, and were concerned with self-education and spiritual development. We have symbolically continued this tradition by organising a series of events at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania and its branch, the Vilnius Jewish Public Library, to honour the memory of Vilnius Jews.

On 19 September, to commemorate the 80th year of the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, the National Library hosted a discussion entitled “Refuged, but not helpless. Polish Jewish refugees in Vilnius 1939-1944”.

The event was attended by Dr Eleonora Bergman, historian of Polish Jewish heritage, former director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and Dr Simon Strelcov, researcher of refugee history and director of the Vilnius Gaon Jewish History Museum. The discussion was moderated by Dr Lara Lempertienė, Head of the Centre for Judaic Studies at the National Library of Lithuania. The opening speech was given by the Polish Ambassador to Lithuania, H.E. Konstanty Radziwiłł, and the participants were greeted by the Deputy Director General of the National Library, Dr Ingrida Veliutė. The discussion was complemented by an exhibition of documents from the National Library’s Judaica Collection.

On 20 September, a very popular debate “80 years on: the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and memory for the future” took place. Dr Christoph Dieckman (historian, researcher on the Holocaust in Lithuania), Saulius Beržinis (documentary filmmaker, founder and director of the Independent Holocaust Archive of Lithuania), Dr Darius Staliūnas (Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History), and Dr Tomas Balkelis (Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Institute of History) took part in the debate.

Dr Christoph Dieckmann said: “This is not the end. There will never be an end. The consequences of the Holocaust and the Second World War will remain with us for the foreseeable future. ...We cannot change the past. But we can change the way we think about the past. We are responsible for our thoughts about the past. ...

True history can cause pain. A sense of insecurity. The truth often hurts. “The ‘sanitised’ versions of history protect us from grey areas, from uncertainty, and seek to make our lives easier by offering us simplicity. But everything is not simple. ... I think we have to choose the real story after all. Open societies can only exist if their citizens take responsibility for their past, present and future.”

The discussion was moderated by Dr Dina Porat, Professor Emerita at Tel Aviv University and Chief Historian of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre. At the beginning of the event, H.E. Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, Ambassador of Israel in Lithuania, and Mickey Kantor, President of the Association of Jewish Diaspora from Vilnius and vicinity in Israel, welcomed the participants. The Q&A session was opened by Dr Jurgita Verbickienė, Professor at Vilnius University.

Closing remarks were delivered by Ronaldas Račinskas, Head of the Secretariat of the International Commission on the Crimes Committed by the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Ingrida Vilkienė, Coordinator of the Commission’s Educational Programmes, and Faina Kukliansky, Chair of the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvak) Community.

Also on 20 September, the National Library invited the public to a presentation of the Fortunoff Holocaust Testimonies Video Archive podcast “Remembering Vilna: Voices from the Holocaust” on 21 September at 6 pm. The National Library and the Centre for Judaica Research have been collaborating with the Fortunoff Video Archive of Holocaust Testimonies since 2022. The podcast “Those Who Were There: Voices from the Holocaust” tells the story of the Holocaust through the first-hand accounts of survivors and eyewitnesses, and the diaries of Hermann Kruk, which tell the story of the destruction of the Vilna Jewish community. It discusses the rise of anti-Semitism between the two world wars, the invasion of Lithuania by the Soviet Union and the subsequent German occupation, the creation of the ghettos, the massacre of the Jews of Vilnius, and the end of the Second World War and its consequences.

On 26 September the concert “Muzik fun zikoyrn / Music of Memory” took place in the atrium of the National Library on 26 September. This exceptional sound experience also commemorates the 80th year of the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto. The event featured original works and improvisations on Hebrew themes.

The improvisational performance, based on Jewish folklore and other musical themes, was performed by the trio “Trise”, consisting of Lithuania’s most prominent musicians – saxophonist Petras Vyšniauskas, laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts, pianist Aleksandra Žvirblytė, and percussionist Arkadijus Gotesmanas. This unique concert programme, which revived Jewish music, was performed in Lithuania for the first time. The concert featured works by Joseph Achron, Max Helfman, Anatoly Shenderov and other composers, as well as Jewish folk melodies and a song from the Vilnius Ghetto.