Memorial Gatherings

The memorial gatherings for those who perished in the Holocaust began in Pabradė (Podbrodzie) itself, after the liberation of Vilna and the surrounding area in 1944, at the home of Golda and Bora Shapira. As Bora wrote in his memoirs:

Three years since Pabradė was occupied by the Nazis and their Lithuanian helpers, may their name be blotted out, and the lives of the Jews became forfeit: murders, abductions and Aktionen, without distinction, by day and by night our blood was shed. And so every day is for us a day of remembrance and commemoration.

Bora saw remembrance and commemoration as a duty and a mission. He opened his home, and together with his wife and daughters set up a committee of several survivors, and from 1944 the memorial gatherings were held in their home. When some of the survivors left Pabradė on their way to Israel, the gatherings were held in the DP camps in Germany, on the blessed initiative of Bora Shapira, Bora Blushinsky and Ben-Zion Lapp. And so the continuity was kept until some 100 survivors reached Israel.

The date of the memorial was set as 13 Cheshvan, the day on which the Jews of Pabradė were murdered in the Kemelishok ghetto. We will never know the exact number of those murdered.

On arrival in Israel the gatherings continued for 30 years in Haifa, at the home of Golda and Bora Shapira at 5 HaNezirot Street. Bora took care to prepare the invitations, and Golda and the three daughters took care of the refreshments. After the memorial the friends would sit and share memories of the small, beloved town; Aharon Babersky was a wonderful storyteller. After a few years the gatherings moved to a club on HaNevi’im Street; Eliyahu and Leizer Gordon, and Bora and Riva Blushinsky, helped.

Memorial gatherings in Haifa

After the deaths of Golda and Bora the gatherings were held at the “Beitenu” halls on Yerushalayim Street, with the help of Riva Blushinsky. The gatherings then moved for a decade to Hadera, to the home of Miriam and Israel Rotenberg.

Memorial gatherings in Hadera, at the Rotenberg home

Several gatherings were held at Kfar Hogla, on the initiative of Edi Narotzky.

Memorial gathering at Kfar Hogla

In 1989 the monument was erected at the new cemetery in Holon, and since then the memorial gatherings have been held there every year.

Memorial gatherings at the new cemetery in Holon