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On 27 January, Lithuania commemorates the International Holocaust Remembrance day together with the United Nations. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, by preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust we must build a secure future for humanity without anti-Semitism, discrimination and hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion.

“Lithuania, as a member of the United Nations Security Council, will contribute to the goal of consolidating joint efforts to stop ethnic and religious conflicts which, unfortunately, could not be avoided also in the 21st century,” the head of the Lithuanian diplomacy stressed.

When commemorating the Holocaust victims, L.Linkevičius invites Lithuanians to remember also the deeds of the rescuers of Jews – Righteous Among the Nations and anti-Nazi resistance fighters.

“The Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, the Consul of the Netherlands Jan Zwartendijk, and Birutė Verkelytė-Federavičienė, an official of the Consulate of Lithuania in Vilnius in 1939, issued visas for life and saved many Jewish refugees who fled from Poland to Lithuania. Librarian Ona Šimaitė, family members of poet Kazys Binkis and opera singer Kipras Petrauskas, as well as many other unknown people risked their lives and put their next of kin in mortal danger to save others. By saving Jews they saved the world and the honour of their own people. The sacrifice and moral values of these noble doers is an excellent source of inspiration for our young generation,” the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said.

In commemoration of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Community of Lithuania, the Jewish Culture and Information Centre, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Vilnius co-organised a presentation of the book “The Non-Existent Manuscript: A Study of the “Protocols of the Sages of Zion”” by Prof. Cesare de Michaelis and a conference. The Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum opened a Shoa poster exhibition and held a screening of the documentary “Call Me A Jew” in cooperation with the Embassy of Austria and the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania held a screening of the documentary “Call Me A Jew”.

In commemoration of 27 January, a National Conference for pupils and teachers will take place at the Vaižgantas Progymnasium in Radvilškis. The participants will see various films, plays and other creative works by pupils of Lithuanian schools, which reveal the tragedy of the Holocaust in Lithuania and Europe, acquaint with Lithuania’s Jewish history, famous personalities and their fate, and the rescuers of Jews.

An unveiling of a stele will take place in Kaunas, Petrašiūnai in the memory of the Jews who were killed by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the same spot on 30 August 1941. The Holocaust Remembrance events will also be held in Panevėžys, at Tolerance Centres in many locations and at Lithuanian comprehensive schools across the country.

In 2005, the United Nations designated 27 January – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp – as an annual International Day of Commemoration to honour the victims of the Holocaust. In 1994 the Seimas (Parliament) designated 23 September as the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of the Lithuanian Jews, to commemorate the victims of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in 1943 as well as other victims of the Nazi occupation regime in Lithuania.