On May 20, 2011, The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum and the Austrian Embassy in Vilnius invited to an event to commemorate Anton Schmid, Righteous Among the Nations,  and to see the movie Feldwebel Schmid (ZDF, 1972).

The commemorational event took place at the Tolerance Center.

The Austrian born Wehrmacht Sergeant Anton Schmid heroically saved the lives of hundreds of Vilnius Ghetto Jews in 1941 and 1942. Upon disclosure he was finally sentenced to death and shot by the Nazis. As part of the government program for the year of Remembrance of Holocaust Victims, a memorial plaque to Schmid will be revealed on Antakalnis Cemetery on 23 September 2011.

Dr. Renate S. Meissner, Deputy Secretary General and Department Director of the National Fund for Victims of National Socialism (Austria), Dr. Albert Lichtblau, professor of history of the Salzburg University (Austria) and chairman of the Centre for Jewish Cultural History, as well as Dr. Leonidas Donskis, Member of the European Parliament, philosopher and fighter for Human Rights, participated in the event.

The welcome address was given by the director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Markas Zingeris:

Deputy Minister Staponkus,
Austrian Ambassador Herman Koller,
American Ambassador Anne Derse,
Excellencies,
Doctors Renate Meissner and Albert Lichtblau,
Europarlamentarian Dr Leonidas Donskis,
Leaders of the Jewish Community,
Dear Guests,

Although volumes have been written about the Holocaust in Lithuania, pages unknown until now still can be discovered that make us tremble with horror seeing how base man can be, but also make us bow our heads before the courage and spiritual strength.

Even some individuals from the Nazi army behaved like human beings, and people who are led by their hearts are hard to predict. Some of them rise above others as evil symbols of that time, while others as carriers of the good and humanism.

Most of the Nazis adapted perfectly well to the inhumane system, they believed its ideology.  One of them was Adolf Eichmann, who was tried in Jerusalem fifty years ago. However, in the system there were some small cogs in the wheel, who turned against the system guided by their hearts and conscience.

We have not forgotten two Nazi officers who served in the occupying army in Lithuania: Anton Schmidt and Karl Plagge. At the Tolerance Centre, there has already been an exhibition to pay tribute to Plagge. I am happy that the day has come to introduce Anton Schmidt to the public. He rebelled against the military and bureaucratic machine to defend his own self-esteem and humanism. Other Righteous among the Nations who worked for the totalitarian system behaved similarly, such as the Japanese diplomat Sugihara who also opposed the instruction bur did what his integrity told him to do. Schmidt was executed the next autumn.

Today you are going to see a docudrama that reflects the real events during the war and depicts real persons: a priest, who falsified documents for ghetto Jews, dramatic Gents, the head of the ghetto, and Sergeant Schmidt.

Feldwebel Schmidt lived in Vilnius seventy years ago. The film was made in Austria forty years ago. The Iron Curtain and communist censorship prevented the Lithuanians from knowing the true history of the country. There are still grey areas there.

I hope that this film will help us to learn more about the twentieth century in Lithuania.