Sixty-Eight Years to Liquidation Yad Vashem 2011 — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

Remarks by Mickey Kantor 2011

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Albert Einstein, 1879-1955.

In my opening remarks from this stage, I would like to send in my name and on your behalf, best wishes for complete recovery and good health to the Chairman of the Association of Jews from Vilna and Vicinity in Israel, Mr. Michael Shemyavich, whose health does not allow him to be part of his beloved audience at this important event.

Here we are again, guests of Yad Vashem –The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem, The Holy City.

We,  Holocaust survivors, their daughters and sons,  have gathered from across the country to unite under one roof and join, to commemorate the memory of our families in Vilna and Lithuania, who perished sixty-eight years ago in that terrible Holocaust.

We are here to sanctify and commemorate the memory of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, a great and age-old community that went up in smoke at the hands of the Nazi oppressor and their Lithuanian collaborators; the entire community: good men and women, great men of religion and culture, men of spirit and deed, elders, mothers and their children, the common people and their leaders, and its renowned cultural treasures.

We are here to promise our dear parents, our community organizations and especially, ourselves, to act tirelessly, and do all we can, to study the diverse, learned and profound heritage of our ancestors, an object of pride to all Eastern European Jewry; to become acquainted with, explore and commemorate it in every way, and bequeath it to our children and to future generations.

We search and acquire more and more knowledge about the community’s culture and the history of the Holocaust of Vilna and Lithuanian Jewry, in the study library we established, in lectures and seminars, in survivor conferences from around the world we hold at Vilna House in Tel Aviv, in the expanding and in-depth website we created, and the March of the Living we hold every year to the Ponar death pits.

During our activities, we also discovered that many of the new Lithuanian generation, leaders, students and teachers, have opened their hearts to know and learn about the Holocaust and its lessons and respect the Lithuanian Jewish community’s heritage, as well as its contribution to the Lithuanian people, within which it lived and prospered for  600 years.

Every year, our host, Yad Vashem and its staff, educate dozens of Lithuanian teachers, giving them access to original informational material and workshops, and teach them the values ​​and lessons of the Holocaust that they may return to their country and enable the children of Lithuania’s future generations to become acquainted with this heritage.

They attend lectures on many and varied topics, including: anti-Semitism in a historical perspective, Nazi ideology and the Jews, and workshops on xenophobia. They visit the Yad Vashem Historical Museum, remembrance museums and the Children’s Memorial, visit the website, and are shown films on the subject. The same teachers study the meaning of ‘commemoration’, listen to the testimony of a survivor, and a tour the Hall of Names at the Museum. They also attend a seminar at the Ghetto Fighters' House (Lohamei HaGeta'ot  Kibbutz).

Similarly, Lithuanian government leaders, their Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and his deputy, the defense and culture ministers, many parliament members and public figures that visit Israel, confront the ugliest chapter of their history at Yad Vashem, experience and learn the meaning of Holocaust commemoration from what is exhibited in this place.

Dear friends, in the history chain, I am the second generation of Holocaust survivor parents; and as the daughter of a mother who passed away as a proud Vilna Jew more than two years ago, I would like to point out an important moral insight: being second generation is a commitment and a responsibility, with all that it implies.

We should try to be attentive and open to those people showing their commitment to raising a young and healthy generation, with values ​​of respect and brotherhood, despite and without forgetting, the actions of their ancestors. We will be open to actions (not declarations) and to confidence-building measures taken, and not lose the great privilege of realizing a historic moment.

The memory of the atrocities committed by the Amalekites to our people during these dark years will not be erased or cause to be forgotten. Nor can they ever disappear from memory. These criminal acts – acts of genocide – cannot be forgiven, wherever they took place.

At the same time, I would also like to take this opportunity to send the sincere feelings of appreciation we, association activists, have for the Lithuanian Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Darius Degutis and his staff, who, year round, face impossible situations in the reality in which they operate, while showing tolerance and respect to all, tirelessly building bridges of understanding, and bringing together the hearts of the next generation of the two nations. Congratulations!

We will also mention the naval officers adopted by the Association of Jews from Vilna, and who have adopted the Association, and those present here in the hall who had to stop their daily routine to be a part of this important event, to hear and see, learn, internalize and remember.

We will unite to remember, not forget, not forgive, and not cause to be forgotten!