Literary lecture „Hate is Failure of Imagination took place at the Tolerance Center on the 5th of May, 2016, at the Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. It was dedicated to international Yom HaShoa Day, then Israel and numerous world countries commemorate Holocaust Victims‘ Day.

Narrator Gregorij von Leïtis is a winner of the New York Theatre Club Prize, Founding Artistic Director of Elysium and President of The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive. The literary collage is a testament to the power of imagination and to the profound love and humanity of the artists who were imprisoned in the ghetto and concentration camp Theresienstadt. The unshakable hope that human decency will prevail and that humanity will be stronger than all the attempts to crush it, is the message conveyed by the texts of pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, poet Georg Kafka, playwright Paul Aron Sandfort, cabaret artist Leo Strauss, composer Viktor Ullmann, and poet Ilse Weber.

Michael Lahr, Program Director of Elysium, gave a short introduction.

Head of Tolerance Center Ieva Šadzevičienė and Curator of Educational Programs Jurgita Jackevičiūtė	Photos from event
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė extended her greetings for the organizers and the participants of the event. According to Her Excellency, project “Hate is a Failure of Imagination” spreads a message of deep commitment to tell the world about the Holocaust. I firmly believe that the project will serve as an unforgettable lesson of history to the young generation and a source of humanness and compassion to all. The event was held under the patronage of Dr. Helmut Kohl, Former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Prof. Felix Kolmer, Advisor to the Foundation for Holocaust Victims.