Page 244 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

242  LITHU ANIA REGION B Y REGION

! KGB Museum
Genocido aukų muziejus
Aukų 2a. Map 1 C2. Tel 249 8156.
Open 10am–6pm Wed–Sat,
10am–5pm Sun. & 8 =
∑ genocid.lt
Also known as the Museum
of Genocide Victims, the
KGB Museum was opened in
1992 on the ground floor of the
former KGB building. In this
Holocaust Museum in the Green House, annexe of the State Jewish Museum effectively designed display
area, personal stories are used
, State Jewish was executed. Descriptions of to reveal the regime of terror
Museum the harsh conditions inside the under Stalin until 1940 and then
Valstybinis Vilniaus gaono žydų ghettoes are fol lowed by until 1991 under the former
Muziejus eyewitness accounts of the Soviet Union.
mass killings in the forests of The exhibits chronicle the
Pylimo 4. Map 1 C3. Tel 212 7912. Paneriai (see p248). Soviet occupation of Lithuania,
Open 9am–1pm Mon–Fri. & 8 the cattle-car deportations to
excursions of the museum & Vilnius Siberia and the futile efforts of
Old Town offered. ∑ jmuseum.lt / Frank Zappa the Forest Brothers (see p122)
The hub of the city’s now tiny Statue who fought the Soviets. Below
Jewish commu nity, this small Kalinausko 1. Map 1 C3. ground, the cells were in use
museum displays copies of right up until the late 1980s
ghetto diaries and handwritten The world’s first statue of the and are even more
notes on the backs of ciga rette prolific Californian rock overwhelming. They
packets about life in the ghetto, legend Frank Zappa was include tiny cells used
plus items that rem ained created in Vilnius shortly in winter with no glass
from the museum that existed after his death from in the window and a
before World War II. Several cancer in 1993. A floor filled with water,
objects that miracu lously group of local artists and an execution
survived from the Great wanted to test the limits chamber displaying, under
Synagogue include a bas-relief of newly inde pendent glass, the dug-up remains
of the Ten Commandments. Lithuania’s proclamations of of victims. In 1997, the
The museum building also demo cracy and freedom museum was taken over
hosts a Union of Former Ghetto and were plea santly by the Genocide and
and Concentration Camp surprised when their idea Resistance Research Centre
Prisoners, a Union of Jewish War for the statue was approved. of Lithuania, a state
Veterans, a youth club and a The bust was created by Bust of insti tution ded icated to
newspaper in Yiddish, English, the then 70-year-old Frank Zappa investi gating atrocities
Lithuanian and Russian called Konstantinas Bogdanas, that occurred in the
Jerusalem of Lithuania. known for his statues of Lenin country during the Nazi and
and other notable Communists. Soviet occupations.
. Holocaust
Museum
Holokausto ekspozicija
Pamėnkalnio 12. Map 1 C3. Tel 262
4590. Open 9am–5pm Mon–Thu,
9am–4pm Fri, 10am–4pm Sun. & 8
∑ jmuseum.lt
Located in the Green House,
this annexe of the State
Jewish Museum reveals some
of the horrors that befell the
Jews of Lithuania during World
War II. A display on Jewish life
before the Holocaust unfolded
is followed by maps and
photographs showing how
and where the Nazi genocide Exhibits in the corridor outside the former execution chamber, KGB Museum
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp304–305 and pp326–8

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