On 3 July, the commemorative event ‘To Remember and to Tell: Stories of the Jews of Jurbarkas’ took place to honour the victims of the Holocaust.
The commemoration event began at the Holocaust victims’ memorial site near the old Jewish cemetery in Jurbarkas. Jurbarkas hosts this event every year because the first mass killings in the town took place on this day in 1941, when 322 people, including around 20 Lithuanians, were murdered.
The Mayor of Jurbarkas, Skirmantas Mockevičius, who opened the event, emphasised the importance of historical knowledge and the significance of annual commemorations. In her speech, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Lithuania, Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein, emphasised that, in a world plagued by hatred and anti-Semitism, every word and commemoration plays a vital role in preserving the memory of these challenging historical events. After a short commemoration at the Holocaust victims’ site, the Memory Road procession marched to the city centre, where the commemoration continued at the synagogue memorial with an event to remember the Jewish quarter that existed here before the Second World War and the Jews who lived and created the city of Jurbarkas.
Ingrida Vilkienė, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes Committed by the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, thanked the Municipality of Jurbarkas and its citizens for promoting historical memory in Jurbarkas, as well as the teachers from the Tolerance Education Centres who had come to the commemoration from various educational institutions: Alytus Jotvingiai Gymnasium, Ariogala Gymnasium, Balbieriškis Primary School, Kulautuva Primary School, Marijampolė Meilė Lukšienė Education Centre, Marijampolė Sūduva Gymnasium, Pagėgiai Algimantas Mackus Gymnasium, Šilutė Vydūnas Gymnasium, Vilnius Naujamiesčio School and Turgeliai Aistuva Gymnasium from Šalčininkai district.
The event at the Synagogue Memorial concluded with a moving prayer for the deceased, performed by Shmuel Jatomas, the cantor of the Vilnius Choral Synagogue.
Participants and guests were then invited to the Jurbarkas Public Library to attend a lecture entitled ‘The Circle of Jewish Life’ by Natalia Cheifec, an educator at the Vilna Gaon Jewish History Museum.
The Jurbarkas District Municipality Public Library and Cultural Centre organised the commemoration, in partnership with the Secretariat of the International Commission, with support from the Goodwill Foundation.
