News

Vilnius University initiative "Recovering Memory" has started in 2016 and its goal has been to commemorate and honor the members of the community of Vilnius University, students and employees, who were expelled due to various historical events, especially due to totalitarian regimes or local collaborators fault, and thus were stripped of the opportunity to finish their degrees, continue research or teaching. To those who could not attend the ceremony on  April 13 in Vilnius, Rector granted the diplomas during his visit to Israel in a special ceremony at the Embassy of Lithuania. On May 2 the university honored former students and research fellows: Izaokas Sadovas (1916–1941), Judita Ščerbakovaitė (1914–1994) and Ošeris Valdšteinas (1912–1941).

A day before the ceremony a unique opportunity was presented to give a diploma to a living former student Ester Klabinaitė (Grobman, b. 1920), who was expelled in 1941 together with other Jewish students and currently resides in Arad.. Ester studied chemistry at Vilnius University. Ester survived the Holocaust in the Kaunas ghetto and later in Stutthof concentration camp and returned to Lithuania. At present she lives in Israel where she emigrated with her family in 1991.

The ceremony was attended by the relatives of the diploma recipients, Vilnius University vice-rector assoc. prof. dr. Birutė Švedaitė-Sakalauskė, assoc. prof. of History Faculty dr. Jurgita Verbickienė, leaders of the Jewish and Lithuanian communities in Israel, local press, representatives of Yad Vashem, World Jewish Congress, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Education Ministry, and other honorable guests.