A con­fe­ren­ce for stu­dents who took part in a na­tion-wi­de com­pe­ti­tion en­tit­led "My Grand­pa­rents' and Great-grand­pa­rents' Je­wish Neigh­bours" took pla­ce in Pa­nev­ėžys on Sep­tem­ber 23, which is mar­ked as the Day for the Com­me­mo­ra­tion of Lit­hua­nia's Je­wish Vic­tims of the Ho­lo­caust. The com­pe­ti­tion is an on­going event or­ga­ni­zed by the "Hou­se of Me­mo­ry" pub­lic or­ga­ni­za­tion. All of the tra­di­tio­nal events nor­mal­ly de­di­ca­ted to com­me­mo­ra­te this Day we­re inc­lu­ded in the con­fe­ren­ce, which was at­ten­ded by teac­hers, pub­lic fi­gu­res, and rep­re­sen­ta­ti­ves from the mu­ni­ci­pal go­vern­ment.

 At 11:00, stu­dents from the Vy­tu­rys Gym­na­sium gat­he­red in Laisvės Squa­re and han­ded out pa­per and card­board sunf­lo­wers, with an insc­rip­tion on their yel­low pe­tals which read: "The Vil­na Ghet­to was dest­royed on Sep­tem­ber 23", "Sep­tem­ber 23 is the Day for the Com­me­mo­ra­tion of Lit­hua­nia's Je­wish Vic­tims of the Ho­lo­caust", "Peop­le who sa­ved Jews from death are known around the world as Righ­teous Among the Na­tions", "Lit­hua­nia's Righ­teous are awar­ded with the Cross for Res­cuing the Dying". This ac­tion was an at­tempt to exp­lain the mea­ning of this sad day to the re­si­dents of Lit­hua­nia's fourth lar­gest ci­ty, Pa­nev­ėžys.

 At 12:00, the par­ti­ci­pants in the "My Grand­pa­rents' and Great-grand­pa­rents' Je­wish Neigh­bours" com­pe­ti­tion gat­he­red in the audi­to­rium at the Žemy­na Se­con­da­ry School. All year long they had been col­lec­ting ma­te­rial about the li­fe of Lit­hua­nia's Jews, and about the tra­ge­dy of the Je­wish peop­le du­ring the Se­cond World War. An ex­hi­bi­tion at the school inc­lu­ded pho­tog­raphs of pre-war Je­wish li­fe, and of sy­na­go­gues and Je­wish ce­me­te­ries in Lit­hua­nia.

 In his speech to the stu­dents, ci­ty mayor Vi­tas Ma­tu­zas en­cou­ra­ged them to fight against xe­nop­ho­bia, ra­cism, and ma­ni­fes­ta­tions of disc­ri­mi­na­tion. "The tra­ge­dy of the Je­wish peop­le must not be re­pea­ted," he said.

 Rep­re­sen­ta­ti­ve of the Cat­ho­lic Church in Pa­nev­ėžys, vi­car-ge­ne­ral Ro­ber­tas Pu­ke­nis no­ted that, "Is­rael and its peop­le ha­ve a right to a pea­ce­ful li­fe, and we, the ci­ti­zens of Lit­hua­nia, must do eve­ryt­hing to en­su­re that pea­ce and mu­tual un­ders­tan­ding ru­le in the Ho­ly Land."

 Žemy­nos school di­rec­tor Ro­mual­das Gri­laus­kas was plea­sed that the con­fe­ren­ce was ta­king pla­ce in our ci­ty, and wis­hed it suc­cess.

 A si­len­ce ho­ve­red over the audi­to­rium when teac­her Ona Jus­pai­tienė tal­ked about the ter­rib­le slaug­her of the Jews which had been or­ga­ni­zed by the lo­cal Na­zi col­la­bo­ra­tors in the Kur­ga­na­va woods, 15 km away from Pa­nev­ėžys.

 Pa­nev­ėžys re­si­dent Ja­ni­na Do­ma­še­vičienė said that, as a child in 1941, she wit­nes­sed the slaugh­ter of the Jews. Ac­cor­ding to her, the shoo­ting las­ted for an en­ti­re month, and took pla­ce near­ly eve­ry day. "Our pa­rents wouldn't al­low my sis­ters and I to watch the hor­ror, but we knew tho­se who we­re doing the shoo­ting. Among them we­re our neigh­bours, the brot­hers Šei­bo­kas from the vil­la­ge of Tra­kiš­kiai. One of them was kil­led du­ring the war, the ot­her va­nis­hed wit­hout a tra­ce. But the third re­tur­ned to Pa­nev­ėžys and li­ved he­re un­til 1990. And it was on­ly af­ter he died that I da­red to speak up," - said J.Do­ma­še­vičienė.

 In the opi­nion of Li­nas Vil­džiū­nas, exe­cu­ti­ve chair­man of the "Hou­se of Me­mo­ry", a lack of truth­ful his­to­ri­cal in­for­ma­tion crea­tes fa­vou­rab­le con­di­tions for dis­tor­ting and fal­si­fying the events of the Se­cond World War, for lies about the Ho­lo­caust. Which is why one of the most im­por­tant tasks of his or­ga­ni­za­tion is to edu­ca­te about the Ho­lo­caust, and to imp­le­ment pro­jects which can rea­lis­ti­cal­ly help stu­dents find out the truth about this tra­ge­dy. He said that the me­mo­ry of the vic­tims of the ge­no­ci­de of the Jews in Lit­hua­nia must be pre­ser­ved, that ma­te­rial about the his­to­ry of Lit­hua­nia's Jews, their li­fe and ac­ti­vi­ties must be col­lec­ted and han­ded down to fu­tu­re ge­ne­ra­tions.

 The con­fe­ren­ce par­ti­ci­pants vi­si­ted the mass kil­ling si­tes of the Jews near Pa­nev­ėžys - in the Kur­ga­na­va fo­rest and the Žalio­ji woods. Ve­te­rans of the Pa­nev­ėžys Je­wish Com­mu­ni­ty sha­red their me­mo­ries of the war years.

 The com­me­mo­ra­ti­ve ce­re­mo­ny en­ded with Ka­dish prayers; flo­wers and wreaths, sto­nes, and lit cand­les we­re pla­ced on the gra­ve­si­tes.

 Ge­na­di­jus KOF­MA­NAS, 

chair­man, Pa­nev­ėžys Je­wish Com­mu­ni­ty.

Newspaper of the Jewish Community of Lithuania “Jerusalem of Lithuania”2006