The memorial at left in Vilnius commemorates the victims of Nazi and Soviet genocide. At the hands of Hitler and Stalin, Lithuania lost over 25% of its population, according to the Oxford Companion to World War II (s.v. Lithuania). Press here to see an enlargement. Nearly all Lithuanian Jews were exterminated by the Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators. The Jewish Museum of Vilnius displays maps of the widespread killing fields but also details how many heroic Lithuanian gentiles succeeded in saving the lives of some Jews. Thousands of other Lithuanians were deported to concentration camps in Siberia and other desolate regions to become part of a deadly system of slave labor. Many executions, moreover, took place on Lithuanian soil. Only recently a mass grave filled with victims of the Soviet secret police was dug up in Vilnius.

To view a Nazi concentration camp (one to which dissident professors of Vilnius University were sent), press here.

To view the headquarters of the Soviet secret police, press here.

In many parts of the world, state-sponsored murder and torture have continued up to the present day.
Press here to find out what you can do to combat such abuses.