March in Vilnius to honor Holocaust victims

VILNIUS – Vilnius will host the traditional "Road of Memory" march on Friday to honor Holocaust victims in Lithuania.

Participants will walk to the Vilnius railway station, take a train to Paneriai, on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered during World War Two, and continue on foot to the Paneriai Memorial, where more people will join the commemoration.

A remembrance ceremony will then be held at the memorial.

Organizers describe the "Road of Memory" as an invitation to all people of goodwill – especially teachers and students – to remember the once-flourishing Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust and to walk the same routes along which Jews were forced to their deaths. Lithuania has more than 200 such sites.

Participants will walk to the Vilnius railway station, take a train to Paneriai, on the outskirts of the Lithuanian capital where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered during World War Two, and continue on foot to the Paneriai Memorial, where more people will join the commemoration.

Around 500 students and teachers from dozens of schools, along with foreign guests and other participants, are expected to take part. Marchers are encouraged to bring stones inscribed with the names of Holocaust victims.

The Vilnius march and commemoration are organized in cooperation with the International March of the Living.

Organizers say some 150 schools across Lithuania are also holding "Road of Memory" marches and other remembrance events.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda will posthumously award the Life Saving Cross to 36 people who rescued Jews during World War Two.

The award recognizes those who saved Jews from Nazi genocide despite risking their own lives and the lives of their families.

Lithuania observes the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews on September 23, marking the 1943 liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto.

During World War Two, about 195,000 Jews were murdered in Lithuania, which had a pre-war Jewish population of around 208,000.