A recent meeting in Vilna with 88 year old Rimantas Dichavicius, artist, who as a young man, under Soviet eyes, secretly photographed the desecration of the holy Zaretche (Uzipis, Olandiu) Jewish cemetery in Vilna, resting place of many Torah sages. We discussed the possibility of hosting an exhibition regarding the Vilna cemeteries.
As an important side note, the 70,000 burial cemetery (one of the world's largest Jewish cemeteries), used until the 1940s, is over 90% intact, with 99% of the gravestones stolen (to be used for construction in public buildings, mist still in use today) or smashed during Soviet times. All the papers for establishing the boundaries and erecting a fence around the cemetery were filed and certified by the Vilna municipal government , but the central Lithuanian government's appointed representative of the world's Jews refuses to agree to agree to erect a fence.
