After Germany and Poland, Ingrid and I traveled to Lithuania, more specifically, its capital: Vilnius.
We walked from the Vilnius Castle Complex to the St. Anne and Bernardine Church Ensemble.
With only one full day at our disposal, it was impossible for us to make a detailed tour of Vilnius. We decided upon driving and walking around, collecting impressions and memories.
Another area was the Gate of Dawn, built in the beginning of the 16th century. Integrated in the town gate was a chapel, Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn.
Ingrid likes to concentrate on details and b&w photography.
We left the center and drove to the oldest and most famous cemetery of Vilnius, Rasos Cemetery, founded in the 18th century.
There was nothing spooky or eerie about this place; with all the flowers, plants, small benches and decorations, it felt kind of cozy.
And, last but not least, the Paneriai Memorial. According to Wikipedia:
The Ponary massacre or Paneriai massacre (Polish: zbrodnia w Ponarach) was the mass murder of up to 100,000 people, mostly Jews, but also Russians, Poles,[1]Lithuanians and others, by German SD, SS and Lithuanian Nazi collaborators,[2][3][4][5]such as the Ypatingasis būrys units,[2][3][6] during World War II and the Holocaust in Reichskommissariat Ostland. The executions took place between July 1941 and August 1944 near the railway station of Paneriai (Polish: Ponary), a suburb of Vilnius, Lithuania. Some 70,000 Jews were murdered in Ponary,[7] along with estimated 20,000 or more Poles[1] and 8,000 Russians, many from nearby Vilnius.[2][4][8] According to Monika Tomkiewicz, author of the 2008 book on the Ponary massacre, 80,000 people were killed, including 72,000 Jews, 5,000 Soviet prisoners, between 15,000 and 20,000 Poles, 1,000 people described asCommunists or Soviet activists, and 40 Romani people.[9]
For Ingrid and myself, this was a shock. We had never heard about this massacre before and the numbers are quite staggering…
