Members and staff of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, representatives from the Lithuanian parliament and government and foreign diplomats observed the Day of Remembrance of Lithuanian Jewish of Victims of Genocide at Ponar on Thursday, September 25. German Bundeswehr rabbi Elisch Mendel Portnoy joined Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yaatom in saying prayers for the dead.

LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky read the contents of an open letter she co-autyhored with Jewish Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris addressed to president Gitanas Nausėda cautioning against the latter’s decision to allow a member of an anti-Semitic party to occupy the post of Lithuanian minister of culture.

KJC chairwoman Kukliansky quoted a facebook post she received that day calling for the murder of Jews.

“If we don’t stop it, this will happen. So I ask all of you gathered here not just to honor those who were murdered and lie buried here–we are standing on blood-soaked soil–but also to think about the future of our country, and what we must do to insure this never happens again,” Kukliansky said.

Photographs by Martynas Ambrazas from the chancellery of the Lithuanian parliament and staff from the LJC.