On 19 October 2010, the renewed Holocaust exhibition was launched at the Vilnius Gaon State Jewish Museum. The exhibition that is on display at the Green House on Pamėnkalnio g. 12, contains new documents and photographs from the last century, and audio and video material. The data was checked drawing on new sources and historiography; there are new exhibits from the museum stocks. The design of the four exhibition rooms was renewed, as was that of the hall; the renovation was carried out by Terra media company.   

J. Markas Zingeris, director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, Rachelė Kostanian, the “veteran” and the soul of the Holocaust exhibition welcomed the guests. Fania Brancovskaja, one of the founders of the museum, spoke to the visitors in Yiddish and told them how important the museum in her life was.

The Austrian, French, German, Japanese, Norwegian and British ambassadors, as well as the Bulgarian, Dutch and American consuls or the charge d’affaires were present at the opening of the exhibition.    

 The main aspects of the history of the Lithuanian Jewry are reflected in the exhibition. The largest part is devoted to the events from the Nazi occupation period: the lack of rights, the killings, the establishment of the ghettos and the full annihilation of the Jews from the provinces. At the same time, it reflects the fight put up by the people who had lost everything: not to give in, to rebel, to have an aim, to have hopes, to think about a better future. There are new display stands, which illustrate the period when the ghettos in Šiauliai and Vilnius regions existed. The material, which shows the labour camps and the Nazi concentration camps will enable the visitors to realise the lawlessness, inhuman conditions, extreme exploitation and gruelling work, which was part of the Holocaust.

A handful of people who were also worried about the safety and future of their families and still risked everything tried to save the humane attitude, the spiritual values, compassion and respect for human beings. There is a stand devoted to the Lithuanian rescuers, also diplomats and soldiers of Vermacht. The material about the Soviet time is the last in this history of the community of the Lithuanian Jews.  

The most important are the exhibits from the museum stocks: the things, which testify to the horror of that time, whose survival is a miracle. They send the message of the volume of the Holocaust, the suffering, the fear and the despair. For example, the whetstone made in the post-war years in a village in Aukštaitija with Jewish letterings on its edge; the split stone next to it, which was discovered in the same farmstead is not a boulder from a field, but a memorial stone from the nearby Jewish cemetery. Part of this monument served as the core of the whetstone, the other part once was used as a sign, which used to stand on the farm.. The man who made the whetstone participated in the killings of the Jews of the small town. When you realise it, the whetstone becomes as though a symbol of all the lost Litvaks. When it turns it emits  a hollow haunting sound. It is for us, so that we know what and how it happened and never forget it.

Teachers, schoolchildren, students and all who are interested in the history of their country are invited to visit the exhibition.

 Photographer Sebastian Pammer