News

On 29 August, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė together with the members of the Association of Families and Friends of the Deported from Convoy 73, the staff of the French Embassy in Lithuania, and staff from the Pravieniškės eldership paid tribute to the memory of the Jews deported from France during the Holocaust in the forest of Pravieniškės.

“Hate and cruelty do not disappear on their own. It is therefore our moral duty to all of us not only to remember and honour the victims of the Holocaust, but also to resolutely and tirelessly resist the manifestations of hatred and violence that we face in today’s world,” said the Vice-Minister Gabija Grigaitė-Daugirdė.

On 15 May 1944, a train—Convoy No. 73—left an internment camp at Drancy, which was set up by the Nazis near Paris, heading toward the Baltic states. It transported 878 Jewish men and boys, most of whom were murdered at the Ninth Fort in Kaunas and in Pravieniškės. Of those deported to Estonia, only 23 survived until the end of the war.

During the worst tragedy of the 20th century, the Holocaust, most of the members of the local Jewish community were murdered in Lithuania. Lithuania lost approximately 190,000 Jewish citizens—who, along with other nations, helped build the state of Lithuania.