The March of the Living: Vilnius honors the victims of Holocaust

As part of the Holocaust Memorial Day, today Vilnius hosted the traditional March of the Living starting at the railway station and culminating at the Paneriai Memorial. The March was attended by, among others, the Ambassador of Poland to Lithuania, Jaroslaw Czubinski, who at the memorial to the Polish victims in Paneriai also commemorated the massacred countrymen.

Prior to the commencement of the march in Paneriai, where 70 thousand of Lithuanian Jews and many thousands of Polish people were massacred, 600 young people formed a human Star of David on the square in front of the Town Hall in Vilnius.

Simultaneously, at the residence of the government there was a ceremony to commemorate and posthumously honor people who were rescuing the Jews during the war.

During the Second World War the Nazis, often with the help of Lithuanian collaborators, massacred about 90 percent of over 200 thousand Lithuanian Jews. About 8 thousand were saved, the other 8 thousand stayed alive because they managed to relocate deep into the Soviet Union.

Israeli Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority ‘Yad Vashem’, for saving Jews, honored over 800 Lithuanians with the Righteous Among the Nations medal.