Jewish Vilnius

We had a six-hour walking and driving tour of Jewish Vilnius that included Cathedral Square, the small and large ghetto, and the Paneriai Memorial, with our guide Svetlana, a young Jewish woman from Vilnius. Svetlana's mother was two-years old at the start of the war, and, when the ghetto was liquidated, they were able to get her out and into the home of a Polish family who raised her from 2 to about 6-years old. No one else in her family survived. When the war ended, the Lithuanian Jewish community wanted to give the children saved by Righteous Gentiles the chance to rejoin the community, so, her mother, like many others, was sent to a Jewish orphanage and raised in the religion of her birth. Her father, a Russian, survived because his father had endured the war as a member of the Soviet army. Today, her family, like most others in Vilnius, celebrates the Jewish holidays and consider themselves Jewish but do no participate in the only surviving synagogue, the Orthodox Vilnius Choral Synagogue where we attended services the prior evening.

Vilnius Choral Synagogue

Our tour started with a leisurely walk from our hotel to Cathedral Square and the Vilnius Cathedral. It might seem a strange place to begin, but our Svetlana wanted to show us an unusual statue for a Catholic cathedral -- Moses. The sculptor based his design on Michelangelo's Moses with the two horns, a misinterpretation of the Hebrew word cornuta, which means both horns and, according to our guide and other sources, rays of sun, a more likely translation.

Moses, one of the several statues on the portico 

of the Vilnius Cathedral

We continued our tour with a stroll to the entrance of the small ghetto. On September 6, 1941 the local police and German soldiers rounded up every Jew and imprisoned them into a space of a few blocks. Unlike most round-ups of Jews who were given notice to ready themselves, the Jews of Vilnius were given 15 minutes to gather what they could hold and move, although there wasn't really any place for them to live. Residents of the area were forced to take in several families each. Svetlana explained that it was easy to escape the ghetto, but there was nowhere to go. The ghetto was liquidated on September 23, 1943. 

A map of the Vilnius Jewish ghetto

Small ghetto is the top right and the large ghetto is to the bottom center.

At the entrance to the small ghetto

Murals around the area depict life in the ghetto

A photo of a Jewish merchant in the ghetto area before the war

The same door today

We entered the large ghetto in Zydu Street or Jewish Street. There we came upon a memorial to Vilniaus Gaonui Elijahu. Gaonui means "genious," a nickname given to him because he had a photographic memory and, most importantly, promoted independent study. Since he thought secular knowledge was more important than studying the Torah, he was a controversial figure. He believed in finding the truth in the Torah rather than accepting it at face value. 

Elijas Ben Saliamonas Zalman

The Genius of Vilnius

The Stumbling Stones project has taken root all across Europe, including the Baltics. Memorial bronze tiles are placed in front of the homes or businesses of victims of the Holocaust. In this case, the stones which represent Lazar Lewando and Fania Lewando-Fiszelewicz sit in front of what used to be Fania's vegetarian restaurant, Dieto-Jarska, or Vegetarian Bistro. She was well known for her excellent cooking and compiled her recipes in a cookbook, Vegetarian Cookbook: 400 Meals Made Exclusively from Vegetables in 1938. The artist Marc Chagall signed a guest book. In 1941 Lazar and Fania attempted to escape the Nazis, only to be captured and killed, according to Svetlana. Other sources suggest they were captured by the Soviet army and that their fate is uncertain.

Lazar Lewando and Fania Lewando-Fiszelewicz

The Yiddish cover of Fania's cookbook

The book was rediscovered and republished with a forward by Joan Nathan 

Lazar's and Fania's Stumbling Stones

I was particularly intrigued to discover that, despite being horribly overcrowded, the ghetto had a library that also offered music, dance, theater, and lectures in addition to the books. Currently the building is under renovation to be turned into a local museum of the ghetto. In the exterior are enlarged photos found in the ghetto after its liquidation. Most of the people in the pictures have never been identified. 

Construction has begun on the new museum to be located in the ghetto library.

Estimated completion is 2026.

In addition to the library, the ghetto also had a secret synagogue. That building is no longer extant, but you can see the hand-carved Star of David on the concret part of the wall. 

When the ghetto was liquidated the people were taken by truck about 20 minutes away to what was then the Ponary Forest, now the Paneriai Memorial. There the Nazis had discovered large pits used by the Russians to hold fuel and other materials, perfect for the mass graves. 70,000 Jews were murdered here along with 2,000 Poles, 8,000 Soviet POWs, and other people deemed traitors to the Germans.

The mass killings in Ponar were prior to the final solution of the concentrations camps and are not as well known. Here is a testimony from a gentleman who escaped. "Completely by Chance"

Although some of the pits were burned, remains still sit under the earth. In 2021 researchers used non-invasive geophysical methods to locate remains, as well as a tunnel that was used by those burning the pits to escape in the middle of the night. 12 of those prisoners were able to escape the forest. 

The beauty and quiet of the forest belied its history. Our walk through the killing fields was emotional, and when we saw a local walking through the woods to gather fresh strawberries that fill the area, it simply felt wrong. 

The original memorial had no mention of the Jews and other victims of the Holocaust,

only a mention of the Soviet POWs. That memorial stone was cut in half and a new memorial

plaque was added honoring all those who perished in Ponary (original name of the area).

Memorial Stone for the Jewish victims

This young man was found with documents identifying him. 

It was decided to place a gravesite with his photo as a symbol of all of those who perished. 

Our guide, Svetlana

The largest pit

As it became clear that the Germans were losing the war, it was decided to burn the bodies

to remove any trace of the atrocities. Jewish prisoners were brought into the forest to do the job.

The wooden ramp was used to pile alternating layers of bodies and fuel for the fire.

The fire builders slept in this pit, digging a tunnel for days in order to escape, which they finally did. 

A guard eventually discovered the attempted escape and shooting ensued.

Twelve prisoners were able to reach the end to their freedom. 

I am purposefully ending this post on a positive note. Here is one of the most famous individuals, at least to Canadians and Americans, with roots in Vilnius. 

Leonard Cohen

Canadian-American Artist

Old Town Vilnius