On 16 August, Rokiškis hosted a “Road of Memory” event to honor the Jews of Rokiškis who were murdered on 15–16 August 1941.
On 16 August, the Rokiškis Regional Museum invited local community members to join the “Road of Memory” march. The march began at the site of the former ghetto near Rokiškis Manor, now home to the Rokiškis Regional Museum. At the memorial, Justinas Malcius, a member of the museum staff, spoke about the establishment of the ghetto, its brief existence, and the deportation of its prisoners to their deaths in a forest 4 km away known as Velniaduobe on 15–16 August 1941. Participants heard the stories of eight Jews from Rokiškis, revealing the tragic fates of these individuals and their families.
From the former ghetto site, participants walked along the “Road of Memory” to Velniaduobė Forest, the location of the mass execution. Halfway there, Giedrius Kujelis, a curator at the Rokiškis Regional Museum, shared recollections of elderly residents who still remember the Jews of Rokiškis being driven on foot to their deaths.
Upon reaching the memorial, the participants placed small stones bearing the names of the murdered Jews from Rokiškis, to serve as a reminder that, 85 years ago, over the course of two days, 3,200 Jews, six Lithuanians and one Pole were brutally murdered there. The museum curator, Laima Skardžienė, who facilitated the event, recounted the site’s history. Simona Strumskytė, another museum curator, then spoke about the exhumation of the remains in 1944, following the start of the Soviet occupation, and the findings of the commission that carried out the work.
Gennady Kofman, the chair of the Panevėžys Jewish community, attended the event and shared his story, noting that hardly a single Jewish family had not been affected by the Holocaust. He never knew his grandparents or great-grandparents, as they were brutally murdered in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Vytautas Saulis, a participant in the “Road of Memory” and a member of the Rokiškis District Municipal Council, recalled the public trials organized by the Soviet authorities in 1965 of those responsible for the massacre of Jews. However, he noted that the most important question – ‘Why?’ – remained unanswered, and that it was unlikely an answer would ever be found. All of the event’s participants agreed that it is crucial to openly discuss what happened in Lithuania during the Holocaust, and convey this message to young people and the general public.
Ingrida Vilkienė, Education Program Coordinator at the Secretariat of the International Commission, also took part in the “Road of Memory” event in Rokiškis. The Secretariat thanks the Rokiškis Regional Museum for organizing the event and sharing the story of how Rokiškis lost its large Jewish community. Before World War II, this community made up 50 percent of the town’s population.
