Vilnius is planning to build a monument to people who were saving Jews during World War Two. The tribute should appear within the next couple of years.
Lithuanian Culture Minister Mindaugas Kvietkauskas has set up a working group to consider the concept for the monument and draft the terms for a creative idea tender.
“We have been planning for a couple of years now to build a very important monument for the memory of our state and nation. A monument for Holocaust-time heroes, Jew savers, and Righteous Among the Nations,” the minister told BNS. “We really need to implement this project that is very important for our memory.”
The working group includes representatives of the Culture Ministry, Vilnius City Municipality, the Government Chancellery, the Jewish Community of Lithuania, the Union of Painters, and the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania.
“We plan that the call for tenders could be issued in spring. And the monument would be built in 2021,” the minister told BNS.
The monument would be erected on Onos Šimaitės Street in central Vilnius, a site linked to the history of the Vilnius Ghetto, the culture minister said.
The monument will be funded by the state, while the Vilnius authorities will manage the project.
Almost 900 Lithuanian residents have been declared Righteous Among the Nations by the Israel-based Yad Vashem Institute.
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