Jewish Monuments of Culture and History in Kaunas
The heritage of Lithuanian Jews is an integral part of the history of the Republic of Lithuania. Comparing with other European towns, the Jews began to settle in Kaunas late—only in the 17 th century. And only from the middle of the 19 th century, when they obtained permission from Russian Tsarists authorities to freely buy and construct houses within the territory of Kaunas, one can speak of the particular buildings, related to Jewish religious, beneficent, and educational activities. Before World War I, numerous prayer houses, synagogues, and social care establishments emerged in Old Town. When Lithuania became an independent state, the Jewish cultural life began to flourish. Schools, community buildings, and private homes were built. Many Jewish architects contributed significantly to the Modernist image of the Provisional capital. In the interwar Kaunas, there were about 37,000 Jews. In 1940, with the beginning of the first Soviet occupation, their organizations were banned, schools and synagogues were closed, and buildings were nationalized. A number of noted Kaunas Jews were arrested or exiled by the Soviets. The second Nazi occupation took not only their possessions, but their very lives, as only about 3,000 Kaunas Jews survived the Holocaust. The majority of those who survived Nazi concentration camps did not come back to their native country, and many who had managed to escape death in Lithuania, left afterwards. Only extant buildings currently reflect Jewish culture as a part of life at the center of the Kaunas Governorate and of the Provisional capital.