photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Clive Moss | profile | all galleries >> Travel Pics >> Eastern Europe - July 2004 >> Remembrance - Lithuania >> Sunday - Vilnius Environs >> Paneriai (Ponar) tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Jewish Museum and Cemetery | Paneriai (Ponar) | Trakai | Living Memories | People

Paneriai (Ponar)

Paneriai (Ponar) is six miles outside the city of Vilnius. Over 100,000 civilians including 70,000 Jews were killed here by the Germans and their local sympathizers.
Some background may be found at http://www.vilnius-hotels.net/tours/paneriai.htm
A monument
A monument		 The stones cry
The stones cry		 The forest appears benign
The forest appears benign		 ...until you come to the killing pits...
...until you come to the killing pits...
The drizzle did not help our mood
The drizzle did not help our mood		 The pits were originally built as oil storage tanks
The pits were originally built as oil storage tanks		 Regina describes the events
Regina describes the events		 Even the flowers cry
Even the flowers cry

comment | share
Guest 23-Sep-2007 12:38
In keeping with the comment below regarding the 9th Fort, I recently spent a week in Vilnius. Some small efforts are being made to honor the Jewish history of this city but they are minor. My husband and I went on our own to visit Paneriai. It was an easy train ride and an easy walk but there was no indication at all that the monument existed, no signs, nothing. If not for very explicit guide book directions, I would have given up and never found the site. My husband and I spent much time pondering how and why a city "forgets" half it's inhabitants and if I felt comfortable spending my money to support this city. It is so important that we remember, honor and learn from history or we repeat it again and again. I am glad to see your posting!
Clive Moss17-Oct-2004 23:27
Thanks for posting this commentary. My pictures from the Ninth Fort are up on the Monday section of the site. We were on a special guided tour, so I did not know that the site and its history were not well known.
--
Clive
Rayetzkas J. 15-Oct-2004 09:55
Dear Sir,

I want to comment about my tour to the ninth Fort near Kaunas, another Lithuanian city. The 9th Fort became sadly notorious for mass murders, mostly Jewish, during WWII, along with other forts in the vicinity (the 7th, the 6th). Historically, these forts were erected by Russians yet before WWI or by Lithuanians during their independence period, 1918-1940. Today the 9th Fort is being used as a museum.

Nowhere on the highroad to or around Kaunas will a traveller note any sign about the 9th Fort. Even when told by the locals, we saw a little sign, written only in Lithuanian ("9 Fortas") without any further indication as to what this place amounts. So that if you aren't aware of its existence, you'll just drive past.

The museum itself is being arranged in three stages. The first is a huge hall, fully dedicated to the soviet terror against Lithuanians in 1940-1941 and post-WWII, when many Lithuanians were being forcefully exhiled to Siberia. Photographs of executions and bodies in the hall date as late as July 1941, a time of a full German ocupation. I think they belong to the time of mass Jewish extermination, but no one opts any explanations, so it's being exposed as victims of soviet terror.

Next is the catacombs of Fort iitself, empty halls and corridors, where a paid guide takes pain to explain in detail the way Lithuanian army solders used to serve and live during independence period of 1918-1940. This part of the tour is the most expensive. A visitor is being taken unaware of what awaits him.

Only later a visitor enters the museum dealing with the Nazi terror. Nowhere in this section it is being in any explicit way explained that Lithuanians took part in mass killings. Outdoors is the walled-in section where victims were being executed and a few monuments, one dedicated by a citizens of little town in Austria. Not an explanation of how this monument relates to this place.

Next is a huge impressive monument erected yet in Soviet times.

An unaware visitor will never understand, by himself, what did take place in the 9th Fort. It is a shameful admittance without a full historical cover. If you know about the history, you'll know why this place is a museum. Otherwise you will create a totally erroneous picture.

Anything having to do with Holocaust in Lithuania is being intentionally twisted or hushed up. Ourday Lithuanian youth is close to unaware about this part of their (yes: their!) history. The "Jewish question" is considered unspokenly something belonging to the past, and there (in the past) having begun and ended.

Unless, of course, you are a tourist coming from abroad, asking questions.

This is a shameful story I wanted to share with the author of this gallery.

R.J., Vilnius
October 15, 2004
click on thumbnails for full image