Lithuania

Lithuania

Since 2019, TOLI has organized yearly Holocaust and human rights education seminars for Lithuanian educators, in partnership with the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania and the Lithuanian Jewish Community.

TOLI’s Lithuania Seminar brings together 30 educators from across the country to learn the importance of the Holocaust and human rights. Through interdisciplinary methodology, teachers learn how to work with their students by using the lens of human rights to understand how atrocities like the Holocaust are possible.

Along with lectures and workshops by local and international experts, participants learned about the Holocaust in Lithuania through guided tours of Jewish Vilna, the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, and the Paneriai Memorial Site.

Thank you to the Good Will Foundation and the Kazickas Family Foundation for their generous support of our Lithuania Seminar.

2025 Program Report

From June 16–20, 30 teachers from across Lithuania participated in our intensive program, focused on Holocaust and human rights education.
Organized by The Olga Lengyel Institute (TOLI) in partnership with the International Commission Lithuania, and supported by the GOODWILL FOUNDATION and The Kazickas Family Foundation – Kazickų šeimos fondas, the seminar blended history, reflection, and action.

Program highlights included a walking tour of Jewish Vilna, a visit to the Holocaust Exhibition Vilnius – Green House, and a trip to the Ponary Memorial (which memorializes the murder of an estimated 70,000-100,000 people from Vilnius during WWII). Teachers attended sessions on antisemitism, identity, and democratic culture, and collaborated to develop and enhance school-based projects and action plans.

Featured speakers included Vadim Altskan (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), Oana Bajka (TOLI), Faina Kukliansky (Jewish Community of Lithuania), Silvia Foti (“The Nazi’s Granddaughter”), Saulius Sužiedėlis (Millersville University), Nicole Nocon (GenerationE/The Butterfly Project), Ingrida Vilkiene (International Commission Lithuania), and Vilma Gradinskaitė (Lietuvos nacionalinis dailės muziejus / Lithuanian National Museum of Art).

Through testimonies, interdisciplinary learning, and international collaboration, our participants gained tools to confront antisemitism, preserve memory, and teach for human dignity.