Speeches

Remarks by H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, at the Life Saving Cross Awards Ceremony

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we pay tribute to the victims of the Jewish genocide in Lithuania, we pay tribute and honor those who gave the inherent right to life back to the living doomed to die.

When they offered the safety of their home to Jews, Lithuanian families knew very well that they placed themselves in grave danger. But in circumstances of extreme cruelty, they could not stand aside, close their eyes and remain indifferent. They knew that indifference meant the death of innocent human beings.

When you save one life it is as if you saved the entire world. So says the Talmud. The Righteous Among the Nations knew it in their heart as they helped to save a friend, a neighbor or a stranger. They responded to the glimmer of hope in the eyes of children and their mothers on the road to death. Some of them saved whole families.

More than sixty years have passed since those days of great tragedy and also of heroism. Most of those who will today be awarded the Life Saving Cross are no longer among us. Their children or grandchildren will accept the award. It is highly symbolic. There is nothing more important than to preserve the memory of courage and compassion, and to pass on the ideals of humanness and love to the future generations.