Tag Archives: lithuania

Marking the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Ingrida Šimonytė along with other senior Lithuanian Government officials and the International Commission for the investigation of the Nazis crimes in Lithuania, today (Thursday, 21 September), joined members and leaders of the Lithuanian Jewish community, and Holocaust education and commemoration organization, the International March of the Living, in a symbolic march from the site of the Jewish Ghetto in Vilnius, to the mass grave on the Paneriai (formerly Ponary) suburb of the city. 

Historically, both Vilna and the rest of Lithuania provided a relatively safe haven for Jews, growing to become a sizable minority of 250,000 before the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. Not so much today.