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Obj. ID: 45574
Jewish Funerary Art
  Monument to the victims of the Vilnius Ghetto in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1989

© Vladimir Levin, Photographer: Levin, Vladimir, 2014

Who is Commemorated?

Victims of the Vilnius ghetto.

Description:

The monument is located at the southern edge of the section of the cemetery where people who died in the Vilnius Ghetto are commemorated. Its façade faces the graves, while its western side turns toward the main pathway of the cemetery.

The monument consists of a central granite stele located inside a gate made of two granite piers and a horizontal granite uneven slab inscribed with the dates “1941-1942.” These dates probably refer to those who died in the ghetto and were buried in this cemetery.

The left (eastern) pier is crude, with diagonal carvings, while the right (western) one is polished and bears a Hebrew inscription.

The central stele bears a white Star of David and a short Lithuanian inscription “Ghetto victims” on the white field. Its upper part has wide and narrow white stripes. Similar strips appear also on the stele’s basis and on the crude pier. Only a wide white strip appears in the lower part of the polished pier.

A donor’s inscription is made on the western side of the slab, facing the pathway.

Inscriptions:

On the slab:

1941-1942

On the central stele, in Lithuanian:

Geto
aukos

Translation: Victims of the ghetto.

On the right, polished pier, in Hebrew:

קדושי הגיטו היהודי
בווילנה שנהרגו, הומתו
ונספו על קידוש
השם על ידי הצוררים
הנאצים ימ"ש [יימח שמם] בשנות
השואה תש"א-
תש"ב יזכרם אלהים
לטובה עם שאר
צדיקי עולם הגנוזים
בבית עלמין זה.
ויקויים בהם חזון
הנביא וניקיתי דמם
לא ניקיתי [יואל ד, כא]. כי דורש
דמים אותם זכר לא
שכח צעקת ענווים [תהילים ט, יג].
ת.נ.צ.ב.ה.

Translation: Martyrs of the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius that were murdered, killed, and perished for the sanctification of the name by the hateful Nazis, may their names be blotted out, in the years 1941-1942. May God remember them for good with other righteous of the world buried in this cemetery. And the vision of the prophet will be fulfilled, “Thus, I will treat as innocent their blood, which I have not treated as innocent” [Joel 4:21, in the Vulgate 3:21]. “For he who avenges blood remembers, he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted” [Ps. 9:13, in the Vulgate 9:12]. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.

On the western side of the slab, in Hebrew and English:

In Hebrew:

נתרם ע"י משפחת
ישעיהו אפשטיין
תל אביב תש"נ

Translation: Donated by the family of Yeshayahu Epstein, Tel Aviv, 1990

In English:

Donated by Fam.
Shaya Epstein
Tel-Aviv 1990

Commissioned by

Family of Yeshayahu (Shaya) Epstein

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

7 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Monument to the victims of the Vilnius Ghetto in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Date
1989
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Lithuania | Vilnius County | Vilnius
| 28 Sudervės kelias St, Šeškinė
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Material / Technique
Granite
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
Overall height - 205 cm
Overall width - 220 cm
Right pier, width - 70 cm
Right pier, thickness - 43 cm
Central stele, width - 51
Left pier, width - 47 cm
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature
Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance

The monument was funded by Yeshayahu Epstein, a Vilna naitive who lived in Tel Aviv (his father Zeev is buried here) and unveiled on November 8, 1989, in the presence of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the former Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defense Forces and Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel.

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Agranovskii, Genrikh and Irina Guzenberg. Vilnius: Po sledam Litovskogo Ierusalima. Pamiatnye mesta ereiskoi istorii i kul’tury, 2nd ed. (Vilnius: The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 2016)., 688.

Guzenberg, Irina, Vilnius: Sites of Jewish Memory. A Concise Guide. Second revised and supplemented edition. Trans. Svetlana Shatalova (Vilnius: Pavilniai Publishers, 2019)., 70.

Guzenberg, Irina, Vilnius: Traces of the Jewish Jerusalem of Lithuania. Memorable Sites of Jewish History and Culture. A Guidebook (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2021)., 704.

Guzenberg, Irina. Vilnius: Pamiatnye mesta evreiskoi istorii i kul'tury (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2013)., 68.

Itzhak Alfasi (ed.), Vilna yerushalayim de-lita hareva! haita ve-einena od (Tel Aviv, 1993), 15.
Type
Documenter
Vladimir Levin, Milda Jakulytė | 2022
Author of description
Vladimir Levin | 2023
Architectural Drawings
|
Computer Reconstruction
|
Section Head
|
Language Editor
Adam Frisch | 2023
Donor
|
Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed: