A Serious Vilnius

Vilnius, Lithuania; Wilno to Poles who called it home until after WW2, Vilna in Yiddish. Dubbed the Jerusalem of North by Napoleon. Nicknamed Babylon in the 16th-18th due to its multi-ethnic demographic. It was not until independence in 1990, that for the first time in modern history Lithuanians became a majority at 63%. of the population.

Maybe this historic mishmash contributed to our mixed feelings about Vilnius. Endearing though was a weird collection of quirky sites. First and foremost, right after arriving-

(PS- pics show up better on the blog, which you can click on in the email)

In addition to Charles Bukowski on the fence, Vilnius has Literatai Street a street decorated with plaques and pieces dedicated to authors, who have some connection (many tenuous like they visited) to Vilnius. The street has historic ties to literature, the poet Adomas Mickevičius lived there (19th C) and printing houses and bookshops operated there (20th C).

There was the Williamsburg/Silverlake/Berkeley hipster area- Uzupis, “Uz” a self-proclaimed independent republic.

And Nick was even able to experience Lithuanian recycling!

If this was not enough, there were the traditional sights like churches, tons of churches which was surprising since during the soviet period many were destroyed or repurposed into warehouses, factories, museums or government buildings.

Very nice big park

In the 1200s, Lithuania was a powerhouse and included parts of Russia, Prussia and Poland. Then began the classic European revolving door of leaders, and Vilnius was part of Poland up until 1918. So as with other Baltic states, there were also many monuments promoting Lithuanian culture, memorializing those killed during the soviet occupation and celebrating independence.

Before WW2, Jews made up about 42% of the population. Vilna was the center of secular Yiddish culture- theater, literature, music and politics. The YIVO and Bund were born here (see links below). Lithuania suffered the full brunt of Germany’s racism, 95% of the over 250,000 Jews there died.

The Nazis established the Vilna ghetto in 1941, divided into the large and small ghettos.

The historically poor, vibrant Jewish quarter was the site of the little ghetto, now a lot of restaurants and upscale shops. A handful of murals of people depicting Jewish life were painted in 2019 using old photographs plus (another diminutive) statue, a milk-man, kind of Tevya-esque from Fiddler on the Roof. For some reason we did not really take pictures here, but here is a good link to some https://litvakshtetls.com/ekskursijosvilniuje/virtual-tours/#jp-carousel-2241

The large ghetto extended into a different area of town which may have been a bit more prosperous and secular area than where the smaller ghetto was located.

We did have some trouble finding some of the Jewish sites on our list, things did not always seem to be well marked, or maybe it was us. Perhaps if we had hit all of the sites on our lists or had a guide, we may have felt the memory of this integral part of Vilnius’s history more strongly. Regardless, the Yiddish world flourished in Vilna and then perished, mainly in the Ponary/Paneriai forest, just a few miles from Vilnius. Site of over 100,000 murders (mainly Jews from Vilnius, as well as Romas, Soviet POW’s and Poles).

So, despite the quirky areas, lovely parks, churches and buildings; Vilnius felt like it was missing a center, like a bagel. It left an undertone of sadness, a more visceral, uncomfortable sadness very different than the historical sadness we felt in the other Baltic capitals. So, we had trouble fully enjoying our visit, or to quote Tony Soprano “The things I take pleasure in, I can’t do.”

Links:

Stolpersteine: https://chosenfugue.xyz/2019/01/07/they-do-make-you-stumble/

YIVO: https://www.yivo.org/About-YIVO, https://yivo.org/Book-Smugglers-Publication

Bund: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Jewish_Labour_Bund

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/07/molly-crabapple-new-book-jewish-socialism