The exhibition “Lithuanian Jews who Returned from the Nazi Concentration Camps”

The part of the artistic research (ongoing since 2008) “Death Diaries” – “Lithuanian Jews who Returned from the Nazi Concentration Camps”.

The author of the exhibition is Kęstutis Grigaliūnas, a laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art.

The exhibition consists of the following: a book with the biographies of 2,700 Jewish people and an exhibition with the photographs of 333 faces and short biographies.

Jewish people freed from Nazi concentration camps had no documents; therefore, they were interrogated in Soviet filtration camps in order to confirm their identity. Filtration files were opened for all of them.

The aim of this research is to collect and present in one publication all the Lithuanian Jews mentioned in the filtration files and cards, which are in the Lithuanian Special Archive, and, most importantly, to compile the biographies of these persons (year and place of birth, place of residence, occupation, places of imprisonment, date of liberation, who liberated them, which filtration camps were used to return to Lithuania and where they settled here), as well as to mention all surviving or deceased relatives of these persons included in the filtration files.

The material for this project has been collected from the filtration files in inventory 59 and 61 preserved in the Lithuanian Special Archive, fond K-1.

The compilation and publication of the book and the exhibition were partly supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius Academy of Arts.

The exhibition will be open until 03.03.2024