Hundreds of students, ambassadors and Lithuanian officials took part on Friday in the annual March of the Living in Lithuania, commemorating the destruction of the country’s once-thriving Jewish community during the Holocaust.
The solemn event began at the site of the former Vilnius Ghetto and concluded at Ponary, where 70,000 Jews were murdered and buried in mass graves by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators.
Before the Holocaust, Lithuania was home to some 200,000 Jews, including 70,000 in Vilnius, the country’s capital once known as the “Jerusalem of the North.” In the summer and fall of 1941, mass executions across the country annihilated more than 200 Jewish communities in what became known as the “Holocaust by Bullets.”
Another infamous site was the Ninth Fort near Kaunas (Kovno), where more than 50,000 Jews were massacred between 1941 and 1944.
Among the participants in this year’s march was Holocaust survivor Arnold Clevs, who was seized at the age of 8 with his family by Lithuanian soldiers in 1941 and taken to the Ninth Fort.
His mother persuaded an officer to spare them temporarily by citing her husband’s service in the Lithuanian army during World War I. The family was later deported to a labor camp and then to Birkenau.
Clevs endured Auschwitz, a death march, and was eventually liberated from Dachau by American forces, together with the group later known as the “131 Lithuanian Boys.”
“To march as a Jew, as a free man, with my children and grandchildren, is the greatest victory for me,” Clevs said.
Reflecting on his return, he added, “The Jews contributed so much to Lithuanian culture. We were very patriotic Lithuanians, but unfortunately, we were not treated well. Don’t make the same mistake again: Help the State of Israel.”
Michel Gourary, European director of the March of the Living, urged students to learn from history and emulate the Righteous Among the Nations.
“While many Lithuanians collaborated and participated in crimes against the Jews, there were also those who chose not to remain bystanders but to act with courage,” he said. “They risked everything to save Jews during the Shoah. Learn from the tragedies of the past to build a better future.”
Since its founding in 1988, the March of the Living has brought more than 350,000 participants—most of them students—to Holocaust sites across Europe, from Poland to Romania.
Nearly four decades later, the program continues to link Holocaust education with the fight against antisemitism, hatred and racism, while reinforcing Jewish identity and solidarity with Israel.
