In short

Paneriai is the site of the largest mass murder organized and executed by the Nazis in Lithuania. In 1941-1944, 50,000-70,000 people were killed in Paneriai, most of them Jews from the region of Vilnius.

The Museum for the Victims of Fascist Terror was opened at the site of the massacre in 1960 and the Paneriai Memorial Visitor Information Centre was opened in 2018. Its exhibit contains basic information on the massacres in Paneriai, facsimiles of archival photographs, maps, and information on recent archaeological and geophysical research. Museum visitors can also see surviving shooting pits where victims were thrown.

There are 9 monuments dedicated to Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Soviet prisoners of war and Roma who were killed there. 

Brief History

In June 1991, the Jewish Community, together with the Vilnius Committee in Israel, unveiled a monument to the Jews killed in Paneriai with inscriptions in Yiddish, Hebrew and Lithuanian. In October 1990, a monument was unveiled dedicated to the Poles who were killed there, in 1992 for Lithuanians, in 1996 for Soviet prisoners of war.

In 1991, the Paneriai Memorial Museum was passed to the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.