This project has been funded with support from European Commission
Under Strand 1 – European Remembrance of Europe for Citizens programme
Final event of the project “Being a Jew” (Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, 2014-2015)
April 16th, STAR OF REMEMBRANCE
The Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) this year will be unique in Lithuania. 700 Lithuanian
youngsters from Vilnius, participants of the January-April events presenting the Litvak culture in Vilnius
synagogue, will take part in the traditional “March of the Living” in Ponar together with the Holocaust
survivors and Jewish community members.
On April 16th at 11 am 700 young people from Vilnius schools will form a live Star of David in the Vilnius
Town Hall Square. Every participant has already chosen one name from the list of Vilnius Holocaust victims
and will wear a special badge - David star with the chosen Jewish name. During the event chorus of 200
children will perform a Jewish psalm in Hebrew on the stairs of the Vilnius Town Hall.
This “Star of Remembrance” will be photographed and filmed using a helicopter camera.
After this event, at 11.30 am all youngsters will walk to the Vilnius railway station and take special “March of
the Living” trains to the mass massacre site in Ponar. To start the ceremony in Ponar they will sing the
famous “Ponar Lullaby” in Yiddish. The ceremony in Ponar starts at 1 p.m.
April 17th , An international conference on Holocaust education
An international conference will take place at the Vilnius Municipality Council, starting at 10 a.m. Among
conference speakers – guests form European Commission, Holocaust researchers from the US, Israel, Poland,
UK and Lithuania, among them world famous figures such as Tomas Venclova, Saulius Suziedelis, Efraim
Zuroff and Dovid Katz.
Conference agenda attached. Registration to the conference: [email protected]
More information: Ruta Vanagaite, Project Producer, +37069844220
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International Conference on Holocaust Education
Venue: Vilnius City Municipality
Address: Konstitucijos pr. 3, LT-09601 Vilnius
Conference agenda
9.30-10.00 – Registration of Participants
Part I.

10.00. “Being a Jew” – opening of the conference.

10.05. “SHALOM!” Vilnius Sauletekis secondary school children choir

10.15. Welcome speeches of 6 Holocaust survivors honoring the 6 million victims

10.20. Welcome address by the Mayor of Vilnius

10.25. Welcome address by the Ambassador of Israel to Lithuania

10.30. Welcome address by the Jewish Community Chairwoman

10.35. Jewish culture and history in Lithuania – 700 years. Šarūnas Liekis, Vytautas Magnus
University, Lithuania

10.55. Coming to terms with past – Holocaust in Europe. Pavel Tychtl, European Commission

11.15. Lithuanians and the Jews. What has changed and what has not during the last 40 years. Tomas
Venclova , writer, USA/Lithuania
 11.35. Myths, stereotypes and quests for truth: Holocaust narratives in Eastern and Western Europe.
Saulius Sužiedėlis , Millersville University of Pennsylvania, USA

12.00. Questions from the audience, discussion
12. 15. Jewish lunch in the Idea Room of the Vilnius City Municipality
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Part II:

13.00. The key challenge facing Holocaust education. Video address by Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Simon
Wiesenthal Center, Israel

13.15. Politics and policies of the Holocaust in the Baltics and beyond. Dovid Katz, Defending History,
United Kingdom- Lithuania

13.35. It has happened here - Museum of the History of the Polish Jews on Holocaust. Piotr Kowalik,
Warsaw Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, Poland

14.00. Holocaust education in Lithuania - experience, gaps and problems. Ingrida Vilkienė, The
International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes
in Lithuania

14.20. Questions to the speakers, participants’ discussion

14.30. Closing remarks. An address to European Union Ministers of Education

14.45. “VILNIUS – THE NORTH JERUSALEM”. Vilnius Sauletekis secondary school children choir
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