The International March of the Living commemorated National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews with two marches, one in Vilnius on Sept. 24 and another in Kaunas on Sept. 23.
The events were co-organized by the European March of the Living and the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
A significant change in this year’s memorial events was the inclusion of Kaunas, a city which served as Lithuania’s temporary capital in 1939 and whose Jewish population was almost entirely wiped out during the Holocaust. In particular, the Kaunas march paid tribute to the victims of Fort IX, a site where over 9,000 Jews were executed. Special recognition was given to 64 prisoners who heroically escaped from Fort IX in 1943 after being forced to hide evidence of Nazi atrocities.
Another pivotal moment of this year’s memorial was the inclusion of a message from 96-year-old Holocaust survivor Elly Gotz, who was born in Kaunas but now lives in Canada.
“My Lithuanian fellow citizens, I honor you, the new generation, for wishing to commemorate the Ponary Genocide. I imagine marching with you to Ponary, thinking of my family among the 9,200 Jews murdered at Fort IX in Kaunas on Oct. 29, 1941. Let us pray for a better future and for peace,” said Gotz.
In Vilnius, participants retraced the harrowing steps from the former Jewish ghetto to the Ponary mass graves, where over 70,000 Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. This march, now in its tenth year, remains a symbol of the enduring effort to ensure the world remembers the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto in September 1943.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, who led the march for the third consecutive year, emphasized in her remarks the persistent danger of allowing hatred to resurface. Her speech drew clear parallels between the antisemitism of the past and the global rise in hate and violence today.
“The hatred that destroyed millions of lives in the past is still alive. We cannot allow the shadows of the dark past to return to our daily lives,” she said.
Michel Gourary, director of the European March of the Living, underscored the urgency of his group’s mission.
“As we see antisemitism rising across Europe, it is vital to fight against hate through education and commemoration. The International March of the Living leads Holocaust education efforts by organizing local marches that honor the victims,” he said.
David Machlis, vice chairman of the International March of the Living, noted that Germany, once a hub of intellectual and cultural achievement, became the architect of genocide during the Holocaust. He emphasized the vital role that education plays in preventing future atrocities and expressed hope that the university presidents in attendance would become allies in the fight against antisemitism.
