Other events in Baltic States

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda presented on Monday Life Saving Crosses to 44 people who risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazi genocide during World War II, informs LETA/BNS.

The awards were presented to Vlade Markauskiene, Irena Ozekauskiene and Leonarda Pliopiene during the ceremony.

Another 41 people were awarded posthumously, and the ceremony was attended by their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren or other family members.

The Jew rescuers were honored on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews that is marked on September 23 to commemorate the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto on September 23, 1943. 

Some 195,000 Jews were killed in Lithuania during World War II. The country had a Jewish population of around 208,000 before the war, according to the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania.