Kedainiai Atzalynas gymnasium students marked The National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews

Preserving the past we protect our future.

Kedainiai Atzalynas gymnasium students joined the initiative to read out the “Names” of those Jewish people who were executed on the 28th August, 1941 in Dauksiai, Kedainiai district. Junior students joined Kedainiai Ausra Progymnasium students and rode their bikes to the location where 2076 Jewish Lithuanians comprising nearly all the Jewish community of Kedainiai were killed 78 years ago.

2076 is not just a number. Every single one of this number was a fellow human with a name, now listed on the memorial wall. Every single name has a face, many preserved in photos. Senior students of Kedainiai Atzalynas gymnasium brought photos of some of those who perished to Dauksiai. After listening to the story about the events of the 28th August, students read the names of the people in the photos they brought and found those names on the memorial wall. The memorial wall with faces and names reminds us how fragile life is and how important it is to preserve the past if we want to protect our future.

Never again.