In 1955, the Jewish cemetery in Panevėžys was closed. On June 2, 1966, according to Panevėžys executive committee decision No. 252, a park was established on the site of the Jewish cemetery. This was cynicism of the highest note. About 12-13 thousand people were buried in the cemetery. All the monuments were removed and stored in the Panevėžys household complex, some of the monuments were broken and used for the decorative wall of the Panevėžys Drama Theater. In the center of the cemetery, sculptor Pajuodis built a sculpture of the symbol of cancer, and a fountain was built around it. Bicycle paths for children and adults have been built at the cemetery. But the worst thing is that residents who lived nearby the cemetery were shocked after seeing the excavation works. Human bones were dug out of the ground. Descendants who came to Panevėžys to visit the graves of their great-grandparents used to go to the wall of the drama theater and pray there.
In 2003, the Jewish community of Panevėžys came up with a project:
- That the wall near the drama theater must be dismantled and the monuments returned to the cemetery.
- In place of the cancer sculpture and fountain, architect Valdas Klimavičius was obliged to create a memorial, where a monument dedicated to the commemoration of the Jews buried in the cemetery would be erected.
The project sketch was completed in 2007.
In 2008, money and opportunities were sought to start the construction of the memorial. The municipality of Panevėžys allocated 100,000 litas, and the Jewish community of Panevėžys also collected money to build a memorial and monument “Sad Mother of Jews”. The construction of the monument and memorial was also supported by the Lithuanian Jewish community, the Embassy of Israel in Lithuania, the Embassy of the Russian Federation, the American Fund for Lithuanian and Latvian Jews, and the Christian Church of the Living God in Panevėžys. Some of the first members of the Panevėžys Jewish community who supported this project: Jurij Grafman and his family, the Gurevich family, Yurij Smirnov, Zinaida Zaprudskaja, Gennady Kofman, Nadezhda Sedych, Valentika Darenceva, Rashelle Vovsy and others. The main sponsor was Keith W Kaye and his family.
The very idea of the memorial was created by Gennady Kofman, and this idea was implemented by the famous Panevėžys sculptor Vytautas Tallat-Kelpša. The monument was unveiled on September 24, 2009, the day of commemoration of the victims of the Genocide of the Jews of Lithuania. A conference was held during the unveiling of the monument in memory of the Jews of the region. Joana Viga Čiplytė gave a report on the history of the Jewish nation, Gennady Kofman, a chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish community, reminded of the history and fate of the Jewish cemetery, and a documentary film about the Jews of Panevėžys in 1932 was also shown. Chen Ivri Apter, the Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Israel, also participated in the event.
Over the past ten years, the monument itself has been repeatedly vandalized by throwing stones at it. Sharp stones chipped off the corners of the memorial sculpture, some spots were scratched, seams of the commemorative stone fence cracked. It was decided to restore the monument at the initiative of G. Kofman, chairman of the Panevėžys Jewish community.
Now the monument “Sad Mother of Jews” and the memorial located in the Panevėžys Jewish Cemetery in Memorial Square have been restored. The seams of the commemorative stone fence are fixed. The monument has been washed, polished, and impregnated. A special impregnant revived the color of the monument’s stone.
