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​Social Activities

The Summer School offers not only sophisticated teaching units, but also cultural and social activities. Apart from the capital of Lithuania Vilnius, you will visit the ancient historical site of the Castle of Trakai, as well as IX Fort in Kaunas, part of the Kaunas Fortress in 19th century and a former prison that functioned during the Soviet Union occupation. Experienced guides will acquiant you with a rich Lithuanian history and current life in Lithuania.

Participants will have the possibility to visit Genocide Victims Museum in Vilnius, Foreigners Registration Centre in Pabrade, the Hill of Crosses the Parliament of Lithuania and other Lithuanian institutions.

Off-Site Experiential Programme

Cultural Programme

The Supreme Court of Lithuania
The Court, founded on the 15th of June 1994, is composed of 35 judges and it is the only court of Cassation in the Republic of Lithuania for reviewing effective judgments, rulings, decisions and orders passed by competence of general competence.

More about the Court: http://www.lat.lt/en/general-information/about-the-court.html

Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson

The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, by proposal from the Speaker of the Seimas, is assigned for a term of five years by secret voting in Parliament. Ombudsperson is accountable to Parliament and is responsible for the enforcement of the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and the Law on Equal Treatment. Some of the activities the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson carries out is investigating complaints, carrying out out investigations on personal initiative,  providing consultations regarding submitted inquiries, and performing independent researches.

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/Good_practices/1-Specialised%20Bodies/SB_Lithuania_en.asp#TopOfPage

The Paneriai Memorial

According to the 1944 data, over 100 000 people were massacred in Paneriai. It is believed that the number of the Jews killed could amount to 70 000. Other victims were soldiers of the Lithuanian local squad, Roma people, participants in the Polish resistance movement, people who were considered communists, and Soviet POWs. The Paneriai Memorial, the site of the mass massacres committed by the Nazis has long needed a new complex that would pay tribute due to all the killed here and corresponding to the needs of modern society. The museum is a part of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum.

More about the site: http://www.jmuseum.lt/index.aspx?Element=ViewArticle&TopicID=533

Kaunas IX Forth Museum

On June 22, 1941, the war between the Soviet Union and Germany started, and on June 25 the army of the latter already controlled Kaunas. In the Ninth Fort, people were massively murdered from October, 1941 to August, 1944, when the Red Army of the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania. The October of 1941 was exceptional in the scope of mass murder: on October 4, 1,845 Jews and on October 29 – 9,200 Jews were killed. Before this, never in history such a large number of people in one day were killed in Lithuania. During mass murders, not only men, but also women, children, and old people were shot. In addition to locals, people from other European countries were imprisoned and killed in Kaunas Ninth Fort: Austria, Poland, France, the Soviet Union, and Germany. On the basis of provisional data, around 50,000 people were killed in the Ninth Fort during WWII. 

More about the museum: http://www.9fortomuziejus.lt/?lang=en

Lukiskes Remand Prison

Lukiskes Remand Prison - one of the oldest prisons in Lithuania. As of 2007, it housed approximately 1,000 prisoners and employed around 250 prison guards. Most prisoners are there under temporary arrest awaiting court decisions or transfers to other detention facilities, but there is also a permanent prison with about 180 inmates; about 80 of whom are serving for life. Russian Emperor Nicholas the Second, this ordinance prison institution started in the center of Vilnius, near the Lukiskes Square in 1901. Prison fortress was built and opened in 1904. In June 1941, during the German invasion, the NKVD shot prisoners at Lukiškės Prison. The prison became more notorious during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, when it was used by the Gestapo and Lithuanian “Saugumas” as a holding cell for thousands of Jews from the Vilna Ghetto and Poles, picked up in Łapankas in reprisals for actions by the Polish resistance. The majority were taken to the outskirts of Vilnius and executed at Ponary (Paneriai). When Soviets reoccupied the territory in 1944, the prison was returned to the NKVD who detained thousands of Polish activists and partisans of Armia Krajowa.

More about the prison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukiškės_Prison

Museum of Genocide Victims

The Museum of Genocide Victims was established by the Order dated October 14, 1992 of the Minister of Culture and Education of the Republic of Lithuania and the President of the Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees. It is housed in the same building where from the second half of 1940 even until August 1991 the Soviet security services, best known in the world as KGB, operated. For the Lithuanian nation this building is a symbol of the 50-year-long Soviet occupation, therefore it is of special importance that here the museum is founded to remind the present generation and to tell the future generations about the years 1940-1991, difficult and tragic for Lithuania and its people.

More about the Museum: http://genocid.lt/muziejus/en/695/c/

Tuskulėnai Peace Park

The Tuskulėnai Park is the place where in 1944 – 1947 the persons imprisoned and tortured in the KGB (NKGB – MGB) inner prison basements on which a death penalty was imposed were buried secretly. From September 28, 1944 to April 16, 1947, in the KGB (NKGB–MGB) inner prison, according to sentences of USSR military tribunals and special councils, death sentences were executed to 767 persons (another 7 died before the execution of a death sentence). Death penalties were executed by a special group formed of Department A of the KGB (NKGB–MGB) staff. After the executions, victim corpses were buried secretly in the mass graves of the former Tuskulėnai manor territory. In the park territory in 1994 – 1996 and 2003, after carrying out archeological investigations, the remains of 724 people were found. On December 31, 2008, the Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park became a subunit of the Museum of Genocide Victims.

More about the Park: http://genocid.lt/tuskulenai/en/

The Open-Air Museum of Lithuania (Rumšiškės)

The open Air Museum of Lithuania established in 1966 is a unique and one of the largest (195 ha) open-air ethnographic museums in Europe. It has the biggest quantity of exhibits (91420 exhibits). The museum presents the mode of life, works, and traditions of peasants and townspeople of all Lithuanian ethnographic areas: Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Lithuania Minor. It has a special route “The Exile and Resistance”.

 

More abut the exhibit: http://www.llbm.lt/interaktyvus-zemelapis/

The Foreigners Registration Centre (FRC)

The FRC is the only facility in Lithuania providing, upon court decisions, temporary domicile to foreigners who illegally entered or stayed in Lithuania, writes LETA/ELTA. Upon decisions by the Migration Department, the FRC also accommodates asylum applicants. Furthermore, the FRC is responsible for transferring those foreigners, who have been granted temporary asylum in Lithuania, to the Refugee Reception Centre in Rukla. The FRC is also to organise voluntary returns of foreigners to their home countries and removals from Lithuania. At the moment, there are 173 persons living at the FRC, the majority of which is Russia and Georgia's citizens.

More abut the centre: http://www.migracija.lt/index.php?-1497548128

The Centre for Civil Education

The Centre for Civil Education – one of the most up-to-date museums in the region – was opened in the Presidential Palace ensemble in March 2016. The building, initially planned as a presidential residency, retained its initial structure despite being built and left unused since 2009. Using the existing layout, Processoffice managed to create bright and minimalistic interior spaces with contemporary interactive exhibitions by Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize winners. Additionally, they managed to retain and showcase the historical layers showing the architectural development of the site.

More about it: http://www.openhousevilnius.lt/en/buildings/the-centre-for-civil-education/

Music
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