On the occasion of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews on Monday, the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania was awarded to Faina Kukliansky, chair of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, and Markas Zingeris - writer, publicist, director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum - for bringing together the Lithuanian Jewish community and preserving the heritage of Lithuanian Jews.
"Each September, as we pay tribute to victims of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania, we look the truth in the eye and witness, once again, the tragedy of the Jewish people - which is also our tragedy. It is a grim and terrible reality that will never stay in the past and will forever remain in our memory. We must contemplate it again and again, we must understand what happened and why - because a past which we fail to comprehend continues to ring painfully in the present," Grybauskaitė said at the ceremony at the President's Palace.
"Most of those we honor today are no longer among us. They helped save lives of their neighbors, friends and total strangers who were doomed to death. These brave people saved Jews, gave them shelter, shared bread, and were mothers and fathers to Jewish orphans. They became an icon of humanness to be followed by all of us - a beacon that we must carry on the path to tomorrow," the president said in her speech.
Around 90 percent of Lithuania's Jewish population of around 208,000 were killed during the Holocaust.
More than 800 Lithuanians have been awarded as Righteous Among Nations for rescuing Jews from the Holocaust.
