Department head: Neringa Latvytė-Gustaitienė 

Department workers:

• Irina Guzenberg
• Jevgenija Sedova
• Aušra Rožankevičiūtė
• Galina Žirikova
• Milda Jakulytė-Vasil

Every year, a volunteer from the Austrian Gedenkdienst organisation works at the department as an alternative military service, as well as history students from Lithuania and other countries.

The department’s fields of activities:

• Research into the 16th–21st century history of Lithuanian Jewry as an inseparable part of Lithuanian history that is studied in the context of society, culture, education, politics, ideology and economy
• Research into the Holocaust in Lithuania;
• Preservation of Jewish identity and culture; search for information about repatriation in Soviet times;
• Educational projects;
• Arrangement of museum exhibitions;
• Printing of publications;

Ongoing projects:

• “The Shtetl: Jews in the Provinces”; the historical development of Jews in little Lithuanian towns; information in the press, literature, archives, search for photographs and video material; correspondence; making lists of eyewitnesses, filling in forms.
• “Atlas of the Holocaust in Lithuania”. The information about the known mass killing sites that was gathered and structuralised is presented in the atlas.  Search for killing sites and historic information about them is continued. In the framework of the project the “Atlas of the Holocaust in Lithuania” was published in Lithuanian and English; a two-language site www.holocaustatlas.lt  was created. 
• “The Lithuanian Jewish Communities in the presence of the Holocaust. (Un)forgotten names and Fates”. The aim of the project is to revive and preserve the remembrance of the Lithuanian Jewish citizens and communities that were annihilated during the Holocaust.
• The department workers provide all those interested with information about Jewish history, as well as those who search for their roots, those who want to learn more or simply check the information they have.
• The department workers conduct scientific research and take part in seminars and conferences.

The latest work:

In September 2010, the Holocaust exhibition was renewed, new exhibits, photographs and documents were added.

In 2011, Irina Guzenberg and Genrichas Agranovskis’ book “Vilnius: Along the Trail of the Lithuanian Jerusalem”. A historical guide to memorable Jewish sites in Vilnius that was almost twenty years in the making was published in Russian. The guide offers twenty-three routes along the city streets, in the Old Town, the former Jewish Quarter, the area of the Great Ghetto and Jewish cemeteries.

In 2011, the collection of archival documents “The Stocks of the Lithuanian State Central Archive: The Source of the Research of the Holocaust in Lithuania” based on the research carried out by Galina Žirikova was edited. It will help Holocaust researchers to orient themselves in the Central Archive.

The 2011 Holocaust exhibition catalogue reminds of the tragedy of the annihilated Lithuanian communities, their strong wish to survive, to tell and protect so that it is never repeated.  

2011, “The Holocaust Atlas in Lithuania”. It is the project initiated and carried out by the museum worker, historian Milda Jakulytė-Vasil and the volunteers of the Gedenkdienst, Austria. www.holocaustatlas.lt

2012: The book “Vilnius: Memorable Sites of Jewish History and Culture” that was published in French gives short descriptions of about a hundred places and sites with the names of the streets.

2012,  The chronicles of the Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai ghettoes, a supplement to the Holocaust exhibition catalogue with a chronology of the existence of these ghettoes.

2012, In collaboration  with the departments of Exhibitions and Collections the exhibition “Export Permitted”: Vilnius by Rafael Chwoles was arranged and a catalogue put together.

2012, Neringa Latvytė-Gustaitienė’s book “Holocaust in Ukmergė” recreated episodes of the annihilation of the Jewish community in Ukmergė.

Contacts:
Pamėnklanio St. 12 Vilnius, Lithuania
Tel./Fax.: +370 5 2127083
E-mail: neringa@jmuseum.lt, neringa0207@gmail.com