On Friday, viewers will see two films directed by Yana Ross based on the play by Tadeusz Slobodzianek “Our Class.”
On Saturday, Vilnius residents and guests will be offered a tour of the Jewish Vilnius, a memorial plaque to Professor Josef Ribelski will be unveiled at a ceremony attended by Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas, followed by an event The Large Litvak Family dedicated to 25-year anniversary of the Jewish Community of Lithuania.
The agenda for Sunday will include a conference on Litvaks, their heritage and the Holocaust. Lithuania's former president Valdas Adamkus will attend the event, with addresses by professors Christoph Dieckmann, Egidijus Aleksandravičius and Roy Rosenstein scheduled as part of the program.
Later in the day, foreign ambassadors working in Lithuania will discuss the Holocaust and its historical consequences.
On Monday, the list of Vilnius ghetto prisoners will be read out loud, followed by several film screening on the Holocaust and an awards ceremony of Life Saving Cross at the President's Office. A Holocaust memorial ceremony will be held at the Paneriai Memorial later on Monday, attended by Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius, Culture Minister Šarūnas Birutis, Israeli Ambassador Hagit Ben-Yaakov and Vilnius ghetto survivor Fania Brancovskaja.
The 4th Congress of World Litvaks will be opened at the Vilnius Congress Hall on Monday evening, followed by a solemn ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary since the ghetto liquidation.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, a number of events will take place in other cities across Lithuania: Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Kėdainiai, Ukmergė, Plungė and Kretinga.
The congress will be closed at Vilnius Russian Drama Theater with a musical, The Last Prophet of Vilnius.
Before World War II, Jews made up about a third of Vilnius population, the Lithuanian capital was an important Jewish cultural center. Set up in September 1941, the ghetto was liquidated on September 23-24, 1943.
Around 90 percent of Lithuania's Jewish population of around 208,000 perished during the Holocaust.
