Lithuania – Holocaust by bullets

Tour Introduction

There had been a Jewish community in Lithuania since the 14th Century. At its heart lay the city of Vilna (Vilnius), the country’s ancient capital known to many as the ‘Jerusalem of the North’. A city where over 60,000 Jews lived alongside native Lithuanians; where Yiddish was widely spoken and Jewish schools and kindergartens flourished; where over a hundred synagogues existed alongside ornate Catholic churches.

This all changed in the summer of 1939 when the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators launched a systematic campaign of murder aimed at the destruction of Litvak culture.

Whilst today there are perhaps only 100 Jews residing in Vilnius and only one remaining synagogue, traces of this once vibrant Jewish community remain across Lithuania.

Anglia is delighted to offer a 3-day programme which focuses on Lithuania’s Jewish Heritage and the destruction which befell this community between 1939-1945.