News

On 21 July during the opening of the exhibition “The Jewish World of Yesterday, the Hope of Today” at the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė noted that fostering values of tolerance was among the priorities of Lithuania’s Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that would contribute to the enhancement of mutual understanding between nations.

“The OSCE member states have an obligation to perpetuate the remembrance of the tragedy of the Holocaust and to ensure due respect for the rights of all the ethnic and religious groups,” the Vice-Minister substantiated Lithuania’s priority for the OSCE.

According to Foreign Vice-Minister A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė, Lithuania has declared 2011 as the Year of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania with an aim to encourage nations that experienced tragic trials in the last century to take steps towards building mutual understanding.

First of all, the Vice-Minister stressed the need to educate the younger generation about the Nazi occupation and to acquaint them with Holocaust survivors’ stories.

“I think that today we not only have to examine the nature of totalitarianism and the Holocaust, but also to tell younger generations openly real and raw, even though painful stories of their parents and grandparents,” A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said.

On the occasion of Lithuania’s Chairmanship of the OSCE and at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, the exhibition of pictures and stories of Lithuanian Jewish families was organized in cooperation with the Vienna-based non-governmental organization Centropa.

The exhibition tells memories, stories and displays photographs of older Jews in Lithuania. It is already exhibited at Hofburg Palace in Vienna and in Prague. Residents and guests of Vilnius will be able to see the exhibition at the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum until 12 September.