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Lithuanian and Swiss scholar, doctor of philosophy, professor, academician and honorary member of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science, historian and educator of literature, publicist, the first man of great intelligence to join the Lithuanian Army as a volunteer, founder of the Lithuanian News Agency ELTA and its first director Juozas Eretas (Jozeph Ehret) will be honoured on 15 October in Basel, Switzerland.

At the house where J.Eretas had lived from 1941, when he returned to Switzerland following the Soviet occupation, Lithuanian chargé d'affaires in Switzerland Virginija Umbrasienė will unveil a memorial plaque for the professor, and priest of the Church of St. Francis and Bernardine in Vilnius, Franciscan monk Julius Sasnauskas will sanctify it.

Head of the Studies Unit of the Education Department of Basel City Canton Hans Georg Signer will give a welcoming speech during the ceremony.

Following the ceremony, all the guests - the Lithuanian community in Switzerland, the nearest relatives of J.Eretas, representatives from the city administration of Basel, and pupils from the Basel Gymnasium of Economics - will visit the grave of J. Eretas.

The final gala celebration will be held at the Basel Gymnasium of Economics, where J.Eretas worked for two decades before his retirement. The event will be opened by the pro-rector of the gymnasium Ronald Schmidt and will be attended by H.G.Signer, professor at Kaunas Technology University and of Vilnius University Tomas Sodeika and the researcher into the life of J.Eretas, Aldona Vasiliauskienė. A folk dance band from the February 16th Gymnasium in Germany will perform at the event.

The commemorative events are organized by the Lithuanian community in Switzerland together with Swiss Parliamentary Bloc Pro Balticum and the authorities of the Basel City Canton. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sponsors the events.