Obj. ID: 45561
Funerary Art Memorial to Anton Schmid in the Antakalnis Military Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2011
To the main object: Antakalnis Military Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania
Who is Commemorated?
Anton Schmid, Righteous Among the Nations.
Description:
The memorial is located in the German part of the Antakalnis Military Cemetery, far from other graves. It is a horizontal granite polished slab, on which a second stone, carved in the shape of a bird, is placed.
In the lower part of the slab, under the bird, there is an inscription in capital letters in Latin "In memoriam Anton Schmid," followed by four identical texts in Lithuanian, German, Hebrew, and English. Each inscription contains a phrase from Schmid's letter to his family, "I only saved people."
Inscriptions:
In memoriam Anton Schmid
In Lithuanian:
Gimė 1900 01 09 Vienoje, nužudytas 1942 04 13 Vilniuje. Vokietijos vermachto
puskarininkis. Išgelbėjo šimtus Vilniaus geto žydų nuo grėsusios mirtes.
“Aš tik gelbėjau žmones”
In German:
Geboren 9.1.1900 in Wien – ermordert 13.4.1942 in Wilna. Unteroffizier der
deutschen Wehrmacht. Rettete hunderte Jüdinnen und Juden im Wilnaer
Ghetto vor dem sicheren Tode.
„Ich habe ja nur Menschen gerettet“
In Hebrew:
אנטון שמיד נולד ב-9.1.1900 בווינה – נרצח ב-13.4.1942 בווילנה
סמל בצבא גרמניה הציל מאות יהודים ממוות וודאי בגטו ווילנה
"הרי רק הצלתי בני אדם"
In English:
Born 9.1.1900 in Vienna – killed 13.4.1942 in Vilnius. A sergeant in the German
Wehrmacht. Rescued hundreds of Jews from the ghetto of Vilnius where
they faced certain death.
“I only saved people”
Commissioned by
The President of Austria. Funded by the Austrian embassy to Lithuania.
sub-set tree: 
Anton Schmid (1900-1942) was a sergeant in Wehrmacht, in charge of workshops in Vilnius where 140 ghetto inmates worked mending military clothing. With his small truck, he transported around 350 Jews out of the ghetto. He also hid the Adler family in his own apartment, and Jews with fake German documents worked in his office.
His activities were uncovered at the end of January 1942 and he was executed in the German military field prison on April 4, 1942. As a “traitor” he could not be buried with other Wehrmacht soldiers and therefore he was interred at the edge of the German military cemetery of World War I in Antakalnis. During the Soviet period, Schmid’s grave, like many other German graves, was razed.
Anton Schmid was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1967.
The memorial in the German part of the Antakalnis Military Cemetery was installed on the initiative of the Austrian president and funded by the Austrian embassy to Lithuania. It was unveiled on September 22, 2011.
Guzenberg, Irina, Vilnius: Traces of the Jewish Jerusalem of Lithuania. Memorable Sites of Jewish History and Culture. A Guidebook (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2021)., 388-389, 672.
Guzenberg, Irina. Vilnius: Pamiatnye mesta evreiskoi istorii i kul'tury (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2013)., 58.