More than 150 students joined a Road of Memory procession as part of the Palanga Jewish Community’s commemoration of Holocaust victims on the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish Victims of Genocide on September 23. Road of Memory is the initiative of the International Commission to Assess the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupational Regimes in Lithuania. A ceremony was held at the site of the reburial of Holocaust victims at the Palanga city cemetery.

Palanga Jewish Community chairman Vilius Gutmanas was one of the speakers, and said: “This isn’t just a date on the calendar for us. Behind the numbers and historical facts stand specific people: residents of Palanga, families, children, our loved ones and neighbors, whose lives were atrociously cut short. They were part of this city, so it’s very important their names, stories and remembrance remain alive. It is especially moving and significant to see so many young people here. My sincere gratitude to the students and their teachers who went on the Road of Memory. This gives hope that this history will not be forgotten and its memory will be passed on from generation to generation. As long as we remember these people, so long will we preserve this part of Palanga’s history, which can never be erased.”