The events to mark 2011 as the Year of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania and the joint Holocaust commemoration projects launched in cooperation with foreign partners were presented at the meeting initiated by Mr Emanuelis Zingeris, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, at the Constitution Hall of the Seimas on 23 March 2011. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister, national ministries and institutions, nongovernmental organisations, the Lithuanian Jewish Community, and foreign ambassadors accredited to Lithuania.
In his opening speech, Mr Zingeris, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Seimas, highlighted the importance of identifying every victim of the Holocaust in Lithuania and welcomed the impetus given to the process on the national scale as a result of cooperation with the Holocaust research institutions worldwide. According to Mr Zingeris, the highest form of respect of the killed is unequivocal condemnation by the national state and political leadership of any public expressions of antisemitism, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance. By way of example, Mr Zingeris mentioned the Resolution on alleged patriotism adopted on 19 March 2011 by the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrat Council in reaction to the march organised in Vilnius on 11 March 2011.
According to Mr Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism, who attended the event as a guest speaker, there is an urgent need to create the conditions for renewing the activities of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, compensate for the property of the Jewish community, run educational projects, and manage the mass murder sites so they appropriately reflect the tragic history of Jews of Lithuania.
Mr Deividas Matulionis, Chancellor of the Prime Minister, made an overview of the action plan drafted by the Government of Lithuania for the remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania and briefed on the completed international projects to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
Ms Faina Kukliansky, Vice Chair of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, welcomed the Seimas initiative to announce the year 2011 as the Year of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust in Lithuania and assured of the support of the Jewish Community for the implementation of the events in the framework. Ms Asta Skaisgirytė-Liauškienė, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, briefly covered the contribution of the Lithuanian diplomatic service to the implementation of the Holocaust Remembrance Programme. She equally called on joining efforts to implement the Litvak cultural heritage preservation projects and highlighted the need to closely cooperate on raising the level of tolerance and combating anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
Ms Anne Elisabeth Derse, US Ambassador in Lithuania, Mr Hans Peter Annen, Ambassador of Germany, and Mr Helmut Koller, Ambassador of Austria, shared the information on the projects launched by their respective embassies to commemorate the Holocaust victims in Lithuania.
