Obj. ID: 45575
Jewish Funerary Art Graves of the people who died in the ghetto in the Third (Šeškinė) Jewish Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, 1950s, 1989
To the main object: Third (Šeškinė) Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania
Who is Commemorated?
People who died in the Vilnius ghetto
Description
Four rows of concrete slabs mark the 89 graves. At the plot's edge near the central pathway of the cemetery are the monuments to the victims of the ghetto and to the ghetto's teachers. At the far end of the plot stands the monument to the victims of the last "selection."
Inscriptions
No inscriptions besides five graves to which inscriptions were added by the families after WWII
Commissioned by
Yeshayahu Epstein
sub-set tree:
The cemetery was bought by the Jewish community in 1935 but not used for burials until 1941. After the establishment of the ghetto, the Nazis permitted the burials of those who died in the ghetto at this cemetery, though these burials were performed by non-Jews. 89 graves are known. One of the first ghetto inmates buried in this plot was 17-years-old Gitl Perlov, who was shot on October 24, 1941 for not having a yellow patch stitched onto her clothing. Also among those buried here are the choirmaster and teacher Yakov Gershtein, historian Moyshe Geller, teacher Malka Haimson, Isaak Shpaizer, and Zeev Epstein, the father of Yeshayahu Epstein.
Several grave markers were established after WWII by the families of the deceased, including one for Gilt Perlov. Some of the were wooden markers which disappeared with time (Vilna yerushalayim de-lita hareva 1993, 14).
The current concrete slabs were made at the time of the erection of the Monument for the Victims of the Ghetto in 1989 and funded by Yeshayahu Epstein (Guzenberg 2021, 704; Vilna yerushalayim de-lita hareva 1993, 14).
A granite sign with the words "Holocaust mass graves" was erected by the Holocaust Educational Trust in 2003-2005.
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)., 687-688.
Guzenberg, Irina, Vilnius: Traces of the Jewish Jerusalem of Lithuania. Memorable Sites of Jewish History and Culture. A Guidebook (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2021)., 703-704.
Guzenberg, Irina. Vilnius: Pamiatnye mesta evreiskoi istorii i kul'tury (Vilnius: Pavilniai, 2013)., 68-69.
Itzhak Alfasi (ed.), Vilna yerushalayim de-lita hareva! haita ve-einena od (Tel Aviv, 1993), 13-14.