Last Sunday, on the occasion of Yom HaShoa, Lithuanian ambassador attended solemn ceremony in Jerusalem to mark the start of Israel's annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day to honor the six million Jewish victims of Holocaust. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and other dignitaries joined Holocaust survivors at “Yad Vashem” in this ceremony of commemoration.

Yesterday, as every year on this date, we gathered together with Litvak communities at Tel Aviv cemeteries of Kiriat Shaul and Nachalat Icchak to pay respects to the victims of Holocaust, which also claimed thousands of innocent lives of Lithuanian Jews. Ambassador Audrius Brūzga emphasized in his speech:

“On Yom Hashoah we remember and reflect on the tragedy of epic proportions which befell the Jewish nation in the XX century. Entire communities, families and traditions of Jews in many countries in Europe have been erased. In Lithuania too, we find empty spaces, fractured memories and scattered mass graves. It is hard to comprehend the scale of destruction and human loss: 200 thousand in Lithuania, 6 million in Europe.But each and every victim has a name, a face, a soul - and that is why it is important to bring back memories of individual people who lost their lives in the Holocaust. We have a duty to remember and we have a duty to act to ensure that the Holocaust never happens again. Yet, having witnessed 7th October massacre of innocent people in the Gaza envelope last year we have come chillingly close to the breakpoint of history repeating itself.

Today, as we pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, we also remember the victims of October 7 and all those who lost their lives so that others could live.“