“80 Years after the Destruction of the Kaunas Ghetto – What Do We Remember, What Have We Learnt?”

On 17-18 July 2024 the Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum invites you to the international scientific conference “80 Years After the Destruction of the Kaunas Ghetto – What Do We Remember, What Have We Learnt?”. What makes the Kaunas Ghetto unique in the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania? What lessons did we learn from the Holocaust in Lithuania and other Nazi-occupied countries? How can we ensure that historical memory is effectively integrated into public consciousness? Experts from Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the USA, Ukraine, and Israel will address these and other significant questions.

The conference will be conducted in both Lithuanian and English. 

The detailed programme is available here.

The Kaunas Ghetto was one of the three major ghettos in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. In the summer of 1941, it housed over 30,000 Jews. By the time the ghetto was liquidated in July 1944, only a few hundred Jews had survived.  

Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Kaunas served as the provisional capital of Lithuania, a hub of intellectual and cultural nucleus of the young state, the people who, with their inner potential, had built Lithuania and rapidly integrated it into the Western system of world states. Jews, including architects, engineers, teachers, doctors, cultural figures, and merchants, formed a significant part of this vibrant society. Their contributions were instrumental in the phenomenal growth of interwar Lithuania,  but, tragically, most were forcibly removed from society within the confines of the Kaunas Ghetto.  

The conference “80 Years After the Destruction of the Kaunas Ghetto – What Do We Remember, What Have We Learnt?” will prompt reflection on these sensitive questions through objective scientific research and comprehensive presentations.

The event is open to the public and will be filmed and photographed. By participating in the event, you agree to be featured in photographs and videos of the event and are informed that these photographs and videos may be made public.

This project is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

The conference is organised by the Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum 

Information partner – “Kauno diena”

Partners: European Network Remembrance And Solidarity (ENRS), International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania

Conference patrons: 
Ambassador of Israel to Lithuania Hadas Wittenberg Silverstein  
German Ambassador to Lithuania Dr. Cornelius Zimmermann