On July 4, victims of the Holocaust, who were killed on July 3rd, 1941, were honored in Jurbarkas.
Jurbarkas hosted a commemoration event to mark 80 years since the beginning of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The memorial event honored inhabitants of Jurbarkas, who were killed on July 3rd, 1941. The event started on Kaunas Street, the site of two former synagogues eighty years ago. Now, a memorial marks this site, dedicated to the former Jewish community of Jurbarkas.
At the beginning of the event, the audience listened to the history of the Jewish community in Jurbarkas. Later, the guests and participants of the event joined the “Road of Memory“ and marched along Kauno Street to the Holocaust victims’ site on the outskirts of Jurbarkas. This site is also an old Jewish cemetery, where on July 3rd, 1941, more than 300 people were killed and buried. The majority of those killed were Jews, but some of them were local Lithuanians and Russians. Vincas Grybas, a famous Lithuanian sculptor from Jurbarkas was among them.
The Mayor of Jurbarkas Skirmantas Mockevičius gave a speech at the Holocaust Memorial. He thanked all the participants of the Road of Memory and the commemoration event. The participants listened to the insights from Faina Kukliansky, Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Ingrida Vilkienė, Coordinator of Educational Programs of the International Commission, a granddaughter of the sculptor Vincas Grybas, and Evangelical Lutheran Priest Virginijus Kelertas, whose grandfather was killed on that place on July 3rd, 1941. Matthias Sonn, the German Ambassador, emphasized in his speech the great importance of education for the objective assessment of history and thanked teachers of the Tolerance Education Centers for their work.
The Jurbarkas city community, representatives from the Kaunas Jewish community, a guest from the Raseiniai Regional Museum, teachers of Tolerance Education Centers from Kaunas Kazys Grinius Progymnasium, Kaunas Veršvai, Kalvarija, and Ariogala Gymnasiums took part in the march and the commemoration event.
Moments from the event:
Photos by Ignas Skridla: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ignas2/albums/72157719493108108/with/51289008136/
Photo from Arūnė Vaičiūnaitė – Levuškinienė’s personal archive
Photo from the newspaper “Šviesa”
Photo from the newspaper “Mūsų laikas”