On July 20, the 85th anniversary of the ghetto’s establishment was commemorated in Šiauliai. An event called the Road of Memory was held in Kužiai at the Holocaust victims’ site.
A commemorative event was held on July 20, 2026, to remember the Šiauliai ghetto, which was established 85 years ago. The Holocaust in Šiauliai, as in the rest of Lithuania, began 85 years ago in 1941. Some of the ghetto prisoners were killed during roundups that same year.
The commemoration took place at the memorial stone on Ežero Str., where the second gate of the ghetto was located. Justinas Švėgžda, the deputy mayor of Šiauliai, and Rašella Galinienė, the chairwoman of the Šiauliai County Jewish Community, gave speeches at the memorial. Šmuelis Jatomas, cantor of the Vilnius Choral Synagogue, recited the Kaddish for the victims. Later, participants gathered at the Chaimas Frenkelis Villa to continue the commemoration. Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, recounted her mother’s story of being taken from the Šiauliai ghetto to the Stutthof concentration camp and managing to survive. Shimon Pesach, the deputy ambassador of Israel to Lithuania, and Dainius Babilas, the director of the Department of National Minorities under the government of the Republic of Lithuania, also spoke at the event.
After the event in Šiauliai, participants and guests traveled to the Holocaust victims’ memorial site in the Luponys Forest in Kužiai. It is the largest memorial site in Šiauliai County in terms of victims, with approximately 8,000 murdered Jews. Participants walked part of the Road of Memory to the Holocaust memorial site. At the main monument, Ronaldas Račinskas, head of the International Commission Secretariat, presented the concept of the Road of Memory. He emphasized the importance of commemorating the dates when local Jewish communities were murdered and drew attention to the names and ages of the victims inscribed on small stones. Many of those murdered were children and older adults. “What kind of enemies could they have been at such a young or old age?” Račinskas asked rhetorically. Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, reminded those gathered at the site of the Holocaust victims that here, in the Kužiai Luponys Forest, members of her family—about 50 people—were murdered, and no one will ever know when they were killed; not even all of their names are known, nor will they ever be…
The Šiauliai County Jewish Community organized the commemoration of the establishment of the Šiauliai ghetto in cooperation with the Lithuanian Jewish Community. The Memory Road event in Kužiai was organized by the International Commission Secretariat in cooperation with the Šiauliai County Jewish Community and the Kužiai Eldership.
