The smallest but most important and best known component of the three addresses that collectively comprise the city’s Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, the museum (also known as the Green House) has been led for many years by the indomitable champion of Holocaust truth-telling, Rachel Kostanian. One of its founders, Dr. Rachel Margolis, now in her late 80s, has been in the news for several years as one of the Jewish anti-Nazi partisan veterans wanted for questioning by Lithuanian prosecutors. Unable to return to Lithuania from Israel, her cause has been taken up by US congressmen, members of the British House of Lords and others internationally. The museum is famous for its unvarnished, accurate account of the Holocaust in Lithuania and the massive local involvement in the actual killing. Its modest, old-fashioned exhibits are far from high modern, but the heartfelt creation of local Holocaust survivors. Outside is a small monument to Japan’s pre-war Vice Consul to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who issued thousands of visas against orders, saving many Jews from certain death. Find it at the top of a steep driveway and invisible to anyone simply walking along on the street below. 

Admission 5/2Lt.

Holocaust Museum comments Add Yours

• Berti Wagner - Vilnius 04 May 2009
  Amazing - its worth every visit! You never ever will find such a museum in another place! Its an old exhibition - but it goes deep under your skin - directly into your heart!