On August 3, a commemoration event was held at the Paneriai Memorial to honor the International Day of Remembrance of the Roma Genocide.
During the event, the memory of the Roma who were killed during World War II was honored, and this painful chapter in Roma history was recalled. The importance of historical memory was also discussed.
The commemoration began with a symbolic “Road of Memory” march from the Paneriai railway station to the memorial. At the so-called “Kaunas Pit,” the Romani anthem was played. A minute of silence was observed to honor the victims, and flowers and ribbons in the colors of the Romani flag (green, blue, and red) were tied to the trees near a small monument.
Ištvan Kvik, the chair of the Roma community, opened the event with a speech reminding those present that “the murdered Roma are not mere statistics, but our people.” Other speakers included Juozas Olekas (Speaker of the Seimas), Kęstutis Budrys (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Shelly Hugler Livne (Israeli Ambassador to Lithuania), Inga Ruginienė (Minister of Social Security and Labor), Vytautas Juozapaitis (Member of the Seimas), Dainius Babilas (Director of the Department of National Minorities), and Sergėjus Kanovičius (Director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum). Representatives from Lithuanian and foreign institutions, members of the Romani community, and teachers with students from ten Centers of Tolerance Education attended the commemoration.
After the commemoration, the Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum hosted a conference titled “Monuments Commemorating the Victims of the Roma Genocide Around the World and in Lithuania.” Guests from Estonia, Latvia, Poland, and Germany shared their experiences commemorating the Roma genocide in their respective countries. The discussions also focused on the planned memorial to the murdered Roma in Paneriai, its implementation, and its educational significance.
The Department of National Minorities organized the event in Paneriai commemorating the victims of the Roma genocide in cooperation with the Lithuanian Roma community, the Baltic Region Roma Association, the Roma Community Center, the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University, and the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
