Jewish Holocaust Museum, Vilnius

Jewish Holocaust Museum, Vilnius ( ?) - darkometer rating : 8 - One part of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum which, as the name spells out, presents an exhibition about the Holocaust in Vilnius and Lithuania at large. It's also known as the Green House because it is housed in an old wooden building that is indeed painted a dark green. In contrast to the high-profile Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (formerly "Museum of Genocide Victims", though it's really about the Soviet repression of Lithuania up to 1991), the Jewish museum is a more modest affair – and not about any genocide, the Jewish Holocaust Museum is a more modest affair, despite its heavy subject matter. The small exhibition is said to be gripping, including rather graphic photos, but old-fashioned and low-tech in presentation style. However, having been established by actual Holocaust survivors it presents the Holocaust in such accurate terms that are very rare in Lithuania, including accounts of the large-scale, willing and even enthusiastic involvement of local Lithuanians in the brutal mass killings of Jews (to a degree that on occasions even stunned the SS !). The latter is an issue that is normally rather swept under the rug in Lithuania . So it is left to the surviving Jewish community to keep the memory of this unsavoury part of history in the Baltics alive. Unfortunately, I was unable to check it out myself when I was in Vilnius in April 2014. It was Easter and I knew that many places would be shut in devout Lithuania , but I didn't really expect a Jewish museum to be affected by Easter. Nevertheless, just to make sure, I enquired with the museum beforehand and was indeed assured that the exhibition would be open as normal on Good Friday. But when I turned up with well over an hour to spare within the normal opening times, they were already closing up.