More Jewish gravestones that were used to construct stairways and other structures in Vilnius during the Soviet era are being removed and taken to Jewish cemeteries in the city.
According to the Vilnius municipality, the latest removals began July 11 and entail matzevot that had been used to construct a stairway on Tauro Hill, near where the former Trade Unions headquarters had been located. The grand trade unions building was demolished in 2019, and a new national concert hall complex is being built on the site, slated to open in 2023.
The announcement said that the city consulted with both the Jewish community and the Ministry of Culture ‘s Cultural Heritage department about the removals.
It said stones and fragments that had legible inscriptions were being taken to the Užupis Jewish cemetery on Olandų street. Stones with no inscriptions, it said, would be stored at the site of the Old Jewish Cemetery.
The removal of the stairs is the latest in a series of moves to rescue Jewish gravestones that were uprooted under the Soviet regime and used in construction. The Užupis Jewish cemetery, which had tens of thousands of burials, was razed in the 1960s and essentially used as a quarry for building material, as were the gravestones of the Old Jewish Cemetery, razed in the late 1940s. Thousands of gravestones and fragments have been recovered and returned to the Užupis cemetery site in recent years.
The recovery process began in the early-mid 1990s, when gravestones that had been used to construct the grand stairway that led to the Trade Union headquarters were removed. Some of them — retaining the shape of how they were cut to be stairs — were used to construct a memorial at the Užupis cemetery.
Read more about the latest removals