News

On 13 June at the ongoing international seminar “European Holocaust History, Human Rights and Tolerance Today” in Kaunas, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė invited the participants of the seminar to protect authentic historical memory, laying the foundation for better mutual understanding of  people, nations, and states.

Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė remembered painful losses of the war and occupations in the 20th century and noted that even in the worst of times the mankind’s brightest and noblest minds managed to preserve humanity and to resist brute force attacks.

“We can be proud that Kaunas, which during the Nazi occupation suffered the horror of the destruction of the Jews that was unprecedented both in Kaunas and in the history of the state of Lithuania, has also raised such personalities,” the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs said.

Among more than 900 persons of the Righteous among the Nation in Lithuania, there are names of such persons who saved the Jews as librarian Ona Šimaitė, poet Kazys Binkis, opera singer Kipras Petrauskas and many other Lithuanian intellectuals.

Vice-Minister A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė said that over the recent decade of the twenty years of Lithuanian’s Independence, Lithuanian and foreign scholars had worked hard to fill gaps in the knowledge about the Holocaust, to promote tolerance and to contribute to the understanding of human rights. She also invited participants to hear with sensitivity memories of the Holocaust survivors, former ghetto prisoners and anti-Nazi fighters.

Since 2010, Lithuanian and international experts have participated in the Holocaust education project, which has been conducted by the Lithuanian educational and scientific institutions, the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in cooperation with the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other partners.

At Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, high-school teachers are raising their awareness of the Holocaust and its significance to current European history and politics today, the promotion of human rights and tolerance education. The educators are also getting acquainted with new sources of information and modern teaching methods.

The Seimas has declared 2011 as the Year of Remembrance of Defence of Freedom and of Great Losses and the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania.

On 13 June, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs A.Skaisgirytė Liauškienė will also meet with Deputy Mayor Povilas Mačiulis and employees of the historical Presidential Palace in Kaunas, and will discuss further cooperation with foreign partners and perspectives of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the issues of the fostering of historical memory and tolerance education.