On 22 September 2009 the new permanent multimedia exhibition “Rescued Lithuanian Jewish Child Tells about the Shoah” was launched at the Centre for Tolerance at the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. The old project initiated by the Righteous Gentiles Department was finally implemented and launched on the day of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the museum’s activities and Lithuanian Jews’ Genocide Day.

On the day of the opening of the exhibition the invited guests came to the museum: the rescued children, now elderly people, whose personal histories are told at the exhibition, the Righteous of the Nations of Lithuania, diplomats and ambassadors residing in Lithuania, and representatives of state institutions and ministries.

Addressing the guests, the museum’s Director J. Markas Zingeris said he was happy  to be able to invite everybody to visit the multimedia exhibition “Rescued Lithuanian Jewish Child Tells about the Shoah”, which was launched on the occasion of the twenty years of the Museum’s activities. The curator of the exhibition, Danutė Selčinskaja, the head of the Righteous Gentiles Department, told the guests about the project. After the official opening speeches, she invited everyone to see the new exhibition which has an interactive memorial and a special light and sound installation.

The representative of the exhibition designers, the deputy director of the Terra Media design company which implemented the project, Jolita Čilvinaitė, told the guests how the unique exhibition had been designed and installed, as well as the importance of the use of multimedia technologies for modern exhibitions which are displayed at the museum.

The Holocaust eyewitness, Rosian Zerner (Bagriansky), who lives in the USA, spoke on the occasion of the commemoration of Lithuanian Jews’ Genocide Day. She is one of the surviving Lithuanian Jewish children, whose stories are told at the new exhibition.  

Among those who addressed the guests were the chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Simonas Alperavičius and Emanuelis Zingeris, a member of the Seimas and the founder of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.  

The violinist Bernardas Petrauskas and the pianist Jonė Punytė performed Pablo Sarasatė’s Andalusian Dance at the opening of the exhibition.

Present at the launch of the exhibition also were: Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the German Federal Republic Hans Peter Annen, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Josephus Camille S.Wijnands, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Hungary Peter Noszko-Horvath, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain Jose Luis Solano Gadea, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway Steinar Gil, the counsellor to the ambassador of the United States of America Damien, Riehl Leader, the deputy minister of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Lithuania, Šarūnas Adomavičius, the editor-in-chief of the Alfa internet portal, Virgis Valentinavičius, and other honoured guests.