Lithuania marks Day of Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews for the first time

For the first time, the Day of the Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews is being commemorated in Lithuania on Wednesday.

The day was chosen in honour of Ona Šimaitė, a librarian at Vilnius University, who on March 15, 1966, became the first Lithuanian to be awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for her rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.

The commemoration will be held at Vilnius University’s Simonas Daukantas Courtyard, where the names of 1,785 people who saved Jews’ lives will be read.

Among those reading the names will be the descendants of Jews’ saviours, ambassadors of several countries, and Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.

“Great challenges are not only destructive. They also awaken heroes. Those whose deeds fuel unquenchable hope. Thanks to them today we speak not only of victims and executioners but also of saviours,” she was quoted as saying in a statement from the Government Office.

The exhibition “Righteous Among the Nations. Those who were not afraid to die, became immortal” will also be opened at the Marija and Jurgis Šlapeliai House-Museum in Vilnius.

Lithuanian Jews | D. Umbraso / LRT nuotr.

Moreover, a commemorative marker to honour the rescuers of the Lithuanian Jews will be unveiled at the Jascha Heifetz Hall of the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

“Lithuanian Jews will never forget their benefactors because they are the lights and heroes of the Lithuanian nation,” Faina Kukliansky, Chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, has said.

The Lithuanian parliament Seimas proclaimed March 15 as the Day of the Rescuers of Lithuanian Jews at the end of last year.

The title of Righteous Among the Nations is the highest award that the State of Israel can bestow on people for their services to humanism. Nearly 28,000 people from 51 countries have received the title.

As of 2021, Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial centre, has named a total of 918 Lithuanians as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their health and lives to save Jews during the war.

During the Second World War, around 195,000 Jews were killed in Lithuania. According to the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre, around 208,000 Jews lived in Lithuania before the war.