The organization was established in 1990 by joint efforts of D. Galpernas, E. Zilber, C. Gurcich, S. Kaplinkij, F. Brancovskaja and others. At that time the Union united 300 former Fascism prisoners residing in the territory of Lithuania.

Unfortunately, at present moment, there are only about 120 people in the Union. The greatest majority of former prisoners live in Vilnius (about 70 poeple), in Kaunas (40), Šiauliai (10), Klaipėda (8). The Union of Former Ghetto and Concentration Camps Prisoners is a voluntary public organization, which unites the people who have spent time in concentration camps, ghettos and other places of incarceration created by the Fascist Germany and its collaborators on the territory of Lithuania and other European countries during the period of the World War II.

The IXth Fort Memorial

T. Jafetas is the chairman of the Union and F. Brancovskaja is the deputy chairman. The main purpose of the Union since the very establishment is providing specific help to the victims of Nazism, protecting their interests as well as assisting in historical, social and moral rehabilitation to the Lithuanian citizens of this category. The support to the survived former prisoners of fascist concentration camps and ghettos is provided by sponsors and volunteers. Thus, in 2002 Dora and Arnold Booms have supported the publication of memoirs of former ghetto and concentration camps prisoners entitled “With a Needle in the Heart” (published in Russian). The book comprises over 100 autobiographical sketches of people, who went through all horrors of the Nazi occupation. In 2003 the Center for Research in Genocide and Resistance of the Citizens of Lithuania and the government of the Republic of Lithuania funded the publication of this book in the Lithuanian and English language.  

 The Committee of the Union gather two times a week (on Mondays and Thursdays) in the Community Center. On these days there are people not only from Vilnius but also from other regions of Lithuania who attend. They come together to commemorate the perished, to exchange memories and communicate to each other.

Vilnius, Pylimo str. 4,
tel: 212 70 74