This year Gary Koren, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Lithuania and Latvia, awarded two groups of Lithuanian citizens who helped save Jewish fellow citizens from death during the years of the Nazi occupation, Righteous Among the Nations medals and certificates on behalf of Jerusalem's Yad Vashem National Institute and Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust. The ceremonies were held March 9 in Ðiauliai and May 15 in Vilnius.

In Ðiauliai posthumous awards were granted to Juozas and Bronislava Dainauskas and the family of their son Petras, who risked their lives to save that of Icchokas Meras, who became a famous writer after the war. Righteous medals and certificates were also presented to sixteen other rescuers, nine of them posthumously.

In Vilnius the award ceremony took place at the Jascha Heifetz Hall, with more than 100 LJC members and foreign guests attending. Only six of the thirty-two rescuers of Jewish people during the Second World War were able to receive their Righteous Among the Nations title, medal and certificate in person. The other awards were given to the children, grandchildren, and relatives of people who, regardless of the mortal danger to themselves and their families, rescued their Jewish fellow citizens during the Second World War.

It is sad to know that acknowledgement of the heroism of many of these people reached them only after their death. There are those who try to find some sort of vaguely political game at play in this reality. Including on May 15, when insinuations arose that someone is deliberately hampering the acknowledgement of Lithuanian rescuers.

Apparently those people need to be reminded of some historical facts.

All of the Jewish organizations in Lithuania were liquidated, many of their leaders arrested and repressed back in 1940, before the Second World War had even started. They began to regroup after the war - in 1989.

Separated from their kin throughout the world by the Iron Curtain, the Jews of Lithuania were unable to perpetuate even the memory of their own dead: inscriptions in Yiddish were forbidden on the mass gravesites. All over Lithuania Russian inscriptions announced:"Victims of the Fascist terror. 1941-1944". It was forbidden to indicate the nationality of the murdered and the murderers. Not to mention the attempts of the official government to hush up, under the guise of "proletarian internationalism", the heroism of those Lithuanians, Poles, Belarussians, and Russians who had helped to save Jews from the Nazis and their local flunkeys.

In Lithuania the work of the Yad Vashem Institute surfaced only 45 years after its founding. Even in the book entitled "Soldiers Without Arms" (Mintis, 1967), which was dedicated to the noble heroism of those who helped the Jews, there is no mention of the fact that the Israeli National Institute and Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust had granted the title Righteous Among the Nations to several representatives of the Lithuanian people.

The main work of searching for rescuers began only after the rebirth of Lithuanian Independence. The criteria for awarding the title Righteous Among the Nations are very strict, and require irrevocable proof, the most important of which are testimonies from those who were saved.

The Department of Rescuers at the State Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum does a huge job searching for rescuers. Its work has intensified greatly with the appointment as head of Danutë Selèinskaja, to whom ambassador Gary Koren expressed his gratitude.

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