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20261012 090000 UTC
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[00:00:00] in the second third of executions
[00:00:03] failed. As terrifying and astounding as that may be, it
[00:00:07] is not surprising. Already in May, in Tennessee, another death penalty
[00:00:11] failed.
[00:00:14] And most often, executions fail
[00:00:16] by injection. Often it is not possible to obtain medication, because
[00:00:20] manufacturers in Europe often do not want their drugs to be used for this purpose.
[00:00:23] So they have to look for other ways, as well as other specialists, who
[00:00:27] would carry out death penalties.
[00:00:30] sees 27 out of 50 states, although some have halted executions
[00:00:33] due to a shortage of drugs. Last year, South Carolina changed the method of execution
[00:00:37] from injection to firing squad, when penalties increased. Last year
[00:00:41] 47 executions were carried out, the most in 15
[00:00:45] years. Americans, I think, may support the death penalty
[00:00:48] in theory, but when they encounter it up close, it becomes
[00:00:51] uncomfortable. The case of Krista Spike is already causing
[00:00:54] controversy. All attention is focused on Krista, she
[00:00:57] has become a celebrity and that's terrible, you must
[00:01:00] remember Colleen, her terrible
[00:01:02] death. I think the death penalty is simply
[00:01:05] immoral. We shouldn't do that, as a society. Violence should not
[00:01:09] lead to more violence. Among supporters of the death penalty
[00:01:13] is the president. On the very first day of his return to the White House, Donald
[00:01:16] Trump lifted the federal moratorium on capital punishment, promising aid
[00:01:20] to the states. In December, an unprecedented execution
[00:01:23] is planned under his order. The Pentagon chief promises that the 13 soldiers killed
[00:01:27] by an Islamist at the 2009 base in Texas,
[00:01:31] Nadal Malik Hassan, who worked as a military psychologist, will be shot.
[00:01:35] and even more. We will ensure that people can
[00:01:38] watch this publicly, because people need to understand that for such things there are serious
[00:01:42] consequences.
[00:01:44] The execution at Fort Hood, where the attack took place, would be the first military
[00:01:48] death penalty since '61 and the first
[00:01:51] firing squad since World War II. Although United States
[00:01:54] law prohibits broadcasting death penalties, military rules
[00:01:58] do not prohibit it. Three hundred years ago,
[00:02:02] public executions were spectacles, for people it was
[00:02:05] like a picnic, but that ended. There are exceptions,
[00:02:09] but most countries do not carry out public death penalties. We are in
[00:02:12] terrible company. North Korea, Iran hold public
[00:02:16] executions. But they don't broadcast it, as experts warn
[00:02:20] that the convicted attacker will get a platform for publicity. He
[00:02:23] showed in every possible way that he sought martyrdom.
[00:02:26] Trump repeats that the punishment will deter. "You can
[00:02:30] do anything and nothing will happen, but we are changing that, although
[00:02:34] it would violate international norms, it would break
[00:02:37] the absolute prohibition of torture, but it is not
[00:02:40] enshrined in law, and the administration's conflict with international law
[00:02:43] is deepening, allegedly due to the persecution of Americans. Washington this week
[00:02:47] announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court.
[00:02:50] On Friday, just a few hours after the Nobel Peace Prize
[00:02:54] laureate was announced, her former judge Navanytėmpiai,
[00:02:58] warned that in the world, the law of the stronger is returning amidst
[00:03:01] international attacks.
[00:03:04] That's all for this week, thank you for watching, soon, Panorama.
[00:03:22] Do you know that there is a convent? Where is it, what was the public
[00:03:26] role of the pious women living in it? They were known, angry.
[00:03:30] atheists denounced, Dr. Jonas Šliupas was also
[00:03:33] a freethinker, we will tell you about him, about them
[00:03:36] and about the first discotheques in Lithuania, where they
[00:03:40] were held, what was
[00:03:42] the idea played there. Today at 7:30 PM, the history of things
[00:03:44] on LRT. Instead of an invitation to weigh yourself,
[00:03:48] a suggestion to hang yourself, instead of a request to bend over,
[00:03:51] an order to bend over backwards. Such curious situations are told by Lithuanian
[00:03:55] doctors when they try to help Russian-speaking patients
[00:03:58] who do not speak Lithuanian. Why, after three decades of independence, do we still
[00:04:02] not communicate in Lithuanian? Discussion
[00:04:05] in the program "Not so simple", this Wednesday at 7:30 PM
[00:04:08] on LRT television. That Monday
[00:04:11] morning, the residents of Žirnių Street did not need
[00:04:14] an alarm clock. The plane was seen to lose control, crashed to the
[00:04:18] ground and its flight ended in a fireball. Exactly one minute
[00:04:21] after 7, when firefighters pulled out the first
[00:04:25] body. One was definitely conscious, the second one
[00:04:28] they pulled out. The Lithuanian catastrophe tomorrow
[00:04:32] at 9:30 PM on LRT.
[00:04:36] An army that we don't remember. It was
[00:04:38] a division, it had everything, and quartermasters and
[00:04:42] staffs. 6000 volunteers, whom
[00:04:45] we forgot. They were doomed to lose, maybe
[00:04:48] hundreds of dead lie in unnamed graves. Will I
[00:04:52] be able to commit suicide so that I am not taken? The premiere of the
[00:04:55] documentary film, tomorrow at 7:30 PM on
[00:04:59] LRT.
[00:05:23] About 15 years of archaeological excavations in Vilnius
[00:05:27] Old Town culminated this summer with the uncovering of fragments
[00:05:31] of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius over an area of almost 1000
[00:05:34] square meters. This year, the
[00:05:38] underground part of the former kindergarten
[00:05:41] was demolished, and it was precisely taking advantage of the fact that the foundations
[00:05:44] of that kindergarten no longer remained, that we see behind me such
[00:05:48] a strange-shaped research area, so it is purely
[00:05:51] a built-up area, so everything we excavated this year was
[00:05:55] always precisely under that building. The larger
[00:05:58] the area, the better, well, anyway, most
[00:06:02] of the archaeological research in Lithuania is related to the
[00:06:05] development of commercial activities, the construction of buildings in
[00:06:08] old towns or some large infrastructure
[00:06:11] areas. In this case, we have such a large area
[00:06:15] uncovered, we have all the opportunities to perform measurements
[00:06:19] without rush, then scans, which
[00:06:22] are only possible, in this synagogue,
[00:06:26] 500 people could pray at one
[00:06:29] time, but apart from the synagogue, here
[00:06:32] around, around that synagogue was the so-
[00:06:36] called Shulhoyf, Shulhoyf translated
[00:06:39] from Yiddish means.
[00:06:42] means a synagogue courtyard
[00:06:45] and there were many other synagogues
[00:06:49] that corresponded to either the professions of certain groups of people
[00:06:53] or some
[00:06:56] interests, where people would gather
[00:06:59] according to their specific education and
[00:07:02] work. Archaeological excavations began
[00:07:05] in 2011, the excavation areas grew from
[00:07:09] about 15 square meters to 100.
[00:07:12] However, it was still like fumbling in the dark,
[00:07:15] although there were plenty of discoveries. Under the floor
[00:07:19] of the former kindergarten, archaeologists discovered one of the holiest
[00:07:22] places of the synagogue, the Bima, and later, even a hidden
[00:07:25] basement beneath it. Year after year, the determination grew
[00:07:29] to uncover the entire area of the former synagogue. This
[00:07:32] is essentially, in Europe, probably one of
[00:07:35] the biggest such surprises,
[00:07:38] discoveries, it's not even a surprise, everyone knew about
[00:07:42] that synagogue, everyone knew when it was completely
[00:07:45] destroyed a,
[00:07:48] but 85 years began with
[00:07:51] the Holocaust and nobody did anything, absolutely
[00:07:55] nothing, no efforts to manage that synagogue or
[00:07:58] to look for its remains,
[00:08:02] we formed a group of archaeologists,
[00:08:05] a group gathered by archaeologist Zenonas Baubonis began excavations, and
[00:08:08] Professor Jonas
[00:08:11] Selgmenas, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Doctor of Archaeology, was invited to lead them. To collect
[00:08:15] daktaras Jonas Selgmenas. Surinkti
[00:08:18] historical data, drawings, iconography, to compare data
[00:08:21] with archaeological research, to summarize and
[00:08:24] understand the evolution of the Synagogue as another
[00:08:26] urban structure, the researchers were assisted by architects
[00:08:30] Daina and James Ferguson, working in Lithuania.
[00:08:33] We appeal to Israeli researchers, as well as
[00:08:37] to Vladimir
[00:08:39] Levin and Sergey Kravtsov.
[00:08:43] They are academics and are precisely interested in this
[00:08:46] topic, among other things, they participated in
[00:08:50] the preparation of the book "Synagogues in Lithuania" published
[00:08:53] in 2012. The Jewish quarter
[00:08:55] in Vilnius began to form at the end of the
[00:08:59] 16th century, when kings granted privileges to the Jewish
[00:09:02] community.
[00:09:03] In 1573,
[00:09:06] the Warsaw Confederation granted equal rights to
[00:09:09] other religions with Catholics. Noblemen were allowed to build
[00:09:13] temples of other confessions on their lands. Near German
[00:09:16] Street, on a plot belonging to Prince Sluckis, the first wooden
[00:09:20] synagogue was built. When
[00:09:23] the brick one began to be built, it is not precisely known.
[00:09:26] In 1593,
[00:09:28] King Sigismund Vasa granted the privilege
[00:09:32] to trade, to have a synagogue, a cemetery, a bathhouse, to build
[00:09:35] houses. A few decades later,
[00:09:38] in 1633,
[00:09:41] Vladislovas Kesis. Vasa granted the privilege to create
[00:09:44] a ghetto. Having bought all the houses, the Jews had to
[00:09:47] move here within 15 years, it was allowed to build
[00:09:51] a new brick synagogue, but it had to be
[00:09:54] set back from the townspeople's houses, its height could not
[00:09:57] surpass them, and its splendor could not surpass churches and monasteries.
[00:10:01] One can always say that 1633
[00:10:05] is that date.
[00:10:09] Undoubtedly, I just found information that...
[00:10:12] in 1639 there was a huge
[00:10:16] pogrom, townspeople, students, and other
[00:10:19] people who ravaged the synagogue very badly,
[00:10:23] it talks about the destroyed property, those valuables. There were more
[00:10:27] pogroms. The synagogue, like the entire city, suffered from
[00:10:30] fires. Each time it was rebuilt, but its boundaries
[00:10:33] were determined by the densely built-up quarter and the winding
[00:10:37] Jewish street next to it. The synagogue facades facing it
[00:10:40] were monumental, but modest, in the Renaissance
[00:10:44] style. Smooth facade planes and
[00:10:47] divided with pilasters and
[00:10:51] around each plane in the upper part of the facade there were
[00:10:55] windows, the entrance to the synagogue was from the side
[00:10:58] facade, it could not be in
[00:11:01] this direction, towards Jerusalem, according to ritual
[00:11:05] requirements, therefore it was usually on an axis,
[00:11:09] if there is an Aron Kodesh, then on the opposite wall on the axis
[00:11:12] there had to be an entrance, in this case there is an asymmetrical
[00:11:15] entrance from the courtyard, access through
[00:11:19] the nave to the main hall of the synagogue, right
[00:11:21] at the wall. "where
[00:11:25] you can see the metal strips, there
[00:11:27] in that place, they are the remains of the former
[00:11:31] railings, because those stairs were probably of
[00:11:35] an interesting construction, because they simply had cavities on the side,
[00:11:38] and when building the kindergarten, those stairs were completely leveled and those
[00:11:42] strips were broken, bent, most
[00:11:45] of the surviving synagogue photo fixations were
[00:11:49] precisely taken from those stairs, although there are quite
[00:11:52] a few of those synagogue photos, drawings..." and so on, but for example, almost all
[00:11:56] photos were taken from two
[00:11:59] angles, and we always see only the central space, where
[00:12:02] the Aron Kodesh, precisely the Bima, of impressive
[00:12:06] size, about 25 meters long, over 20
[00:12:09] meters wide, more than 12 meters high,
[00:12:13] the main room, the men's prayer hall, was surrounded on three sides
[00:12:16] by narrow single-story corridors. On the sides were
[00:12:20] attached single-story rather narrow
[00:12:23] galleries, the women's gallery.
[00:12:25] So that was perhaps the primary structure, that space is truly
[00:12:29] impressive, four columns in the middle
[00:12:33] and divided with pilasters, connected and
[00:12:36] such is that space covered
[00:12:39] with nine cross
[00:12:42] vaults with such expressive, very
[00:12:45] beautiful cannelures
[00:12:48] with an ornate Renaissance pattern. During this summer's
[00:12:52] archaeological excavations, fully uncovered
[00:12:55] fragments, that is the place for reading the Torah,
[00:12:59] as well as for prayers,
[00:13:02] and also the place of performance for hymns. It is known that in the Great
[00:13:05] Synagogue of Vilnius there was a choir, which also participated in the services, it
[00:13:09] is known that it also stood in this place,
[00:13:13] cantors also performed hymns, most likely a
[00:13:17] procession took place during the services, descending from
[00:13:20] the Bima, passing through the passage to the Aron Kodesh,
[00:13:24] ascending. As I mentioned, the steps were also L-shaped, ascending
[00:13:28] on one side, taking the Torah and returning on the other side, and
[00:13:32] ascending on the other side again, well, it's like a whole
[00:13:35] process, that's why there are these two-sided steps
[00:13:39] in both the most important places of the synagogue,
[00:13:43] or the Aron Kodesh, the place for storing the Torah, we don't
[00:13:46] see it now, it was uncovered during previous years'
[00:13:49] research, conserved and is again hidden underground,
[00:13:53] so here you can see two large columns, which
[00:13:56] were about 9-10
[00:13:58] high, and also we see two columns in the wall,
[00:14:02] one better preserved, the other hidden under the thermal pipe and
[00:14:06] the ruins of one of the columns are visible, and
[00:14:09] we have investigated other areas outside the boundaries in 22 and
[00:14:13] 24, so the Aron Kodesh is also
[00:14:16] roughly at the tree line on that side, to imagine how large
[00:14:20] it was at the back wall of the synagogue, it also had steps, here
[00:14:24] we have... for illustration, also steps leading from one side and
[00:14:28] from the other side to the Bima, on the Bima, so it was exactly the same
[00:14:31] there were also steps, where you climb up one side and
[00:14:34] go down the other side. In the middle of the 18th century, the men's
[00:14:38] prayer hall changed little, but the Bima received ornate
[00:14:42] Rococo accents. Between those four columns were
[00:14:45] small columns, of course all Rococo plastic
[00:14:49] forms in three levels and
[00:14:52] that...
[00:14:55] entablature was also decorated with cartouches, and lions and
[00:14:58] vases, a cabinet for the Torah for Eastern use and
[00:15:02] there were such wooden doors covered with silver
[00:15:06] and textiles, hangings, curtains and
[00:15:09] and such panels with the commandments of God above
[00:15:13] the Aron Kodesh, and the Aron Kodesh itself was elevated,
[00:15:17] that place with curved steps from two sides. After
[00:15:20] the Kościuszko Uprising, the Great Synagogue was again
[00:15:23] damaged. The Russian army shelled the city, a shell hit
[00:15:26] the synagogue, but did not explode. The reconstruction
[00:15:30] was already carried out according to the requirements of
[00:15:33] classical aesthetics. A triangular pediment rose
[00:15:36] on the southeast side, with two-story wooden
[00:15:39] galleries and openwork railings.
[00:15:42] If in the Renaissance period one can assume that there was a roof
[00:15:45] with an attic, which protected the roof from
[00:15:49] fire and perhaps also served as a defensive
[00:15:52] barrier, or some defensive function it could have had
[00:15:56] to some extent, then the shape of the roof did not change
[00:15:59] during the classicist reconstruction, but
[00:16:02] this new element appeared, such a triangular
[00:16:05] pediment.
[00:16:07] In 1893, a reconstruction project
[00:16:11] was prepared, inside the synagogue the prayer hall was expanded
[00:16:15] by rebuilding the women's gallery. This
[00:16:18] wall behind me is
[00:16:21] older, dated to the 17th century, because we know
[00:16:24] that at first the synagogue was a bit
[00:16:27] smaller, it only had that central space where the Bima is,
[00:16:31] so later only in the 18th century extensions were added
[00:16:35] precisely to that synagogue to increase
[00:16:38] there was a need for simply more
[00:16:41] worshipers. It happened in stages, so also for the first
[00:16:45] time in 24 years, this wall
[00:16:49] of the central part was found,
[00:16:51] and now we have a much larger part of it,
[00:16:55] we can take into account its historical
[00:16:58] development as well. The women's gallery is exactly behind that
[00:17:02] 17th-century wall, and then where the 18th-century wall is, that
[00:17:04] part is precisely the women's gallery. In this
[00:17:08] wall we see such cavities, so
[00:17:11] these cavities are precisely windows, which were precisely
[00:17:14] made in the women's gallery, so that light and sound could enter
[00:17:17] precisely from the central
[00:17:21] space into the women's section during services,
[00:17:24] so that's why there are such interesting
[00:17:27] cutouts, because even in photos you can see that those windows
[00:17:30] are receding, they are not completely straight, here in this
[00:17:34] place you can see fallen a... elements of the vault
[00:17:38] and walls, which we leave as an example
[00:17:41] of the synagogue's existence. This
[00:17:44] year for the first time we also have found the remains of the former
[00:17:48] floor of the women's gallery, where there are also very interesting
[00:17:51] non-standard tiles, which I personally
[00:17:55] asked colleagues about, whether they have seen any
[00:17:59] similar-sized tiles, that they would be, because they are almost
[00:18:02] 50 cm by 50 and quite
[00:18:05] thick, well, they were most likely made specially to order.
[00:18:09] Earlier ceramic tiles of the synagogue were already
[00:18:12] covered by 19th-century terrazzo with ornaments. In general,
[00:18:16] all these floors, terrazzo, cement and
[00:18:20] ornaments are not very special. Essentially, you can find
[00:18:23] very similar ones in late 19th,
[00:18:27] early 20th-century buildings, especially in stairwells,
[00:18:30] so practically identical ornaments can be
[00:18:34] seen there. Yes, those terrazzo
[00:18:37] floors are really well preserved, but in some
[00:18:41] places due to the great weight
[00:18:44] when demolishing the synagogue, fragments of fallen
[00:18:48] ceilings have also remained, as well as walls, columns, and in some
[00:18:51] places those terrazzo floors are broken through, so what is very
[00:18:55] interesting is that under those terrazzo floors
[00:18:58] you can see the remaining fragments of older
[00:19:01] floors, in previous years we also knew that
[00:19:04] there are those decorated floors, that they have slightly
[00:19:08] different decorations, but this year we saw that those decorations
[00:19:11] differ on different sides of the Bima, on one side we see
[00:19:15] flowers with, as I call them, signs of eternity, and on the other
[00:19:18] side there are such spirals, coiled flower shapes,
[00:19:22] they differ in different places, here it's probably
[00:19:25] passages, and those gaps, where there is no
[00:19:29] decoration, most likely in these places were benches
[00:19:33] for worshipers to sit in the central space, classical
[00:19:36] ornaments. These also decorate the Bima's platform.
[00:19:40] The only motif that perhaps had some stronger meaning was
[00:19:44] those stars, precisely, where there is also a star at the central entrance,
[00:19:47] there is also a star on
[00:19:50] the Bima, in front of the Bima, and also opposite it there
[00:19:54] are fragments from the Aron Kodesh towards the Bima, well, those are like
[00:19:57] connecting fragments pointing
[00:20:01] to each other, well, but also such stars, as I
[00:20:04] say, can also be found in other places, well, simply that... "they had
[00:20:07] meaning, well, facing each other, archaeologists are happy
[00:20:11] to have found impressive column remains, here is a part of one
[00:20:15] of those large columns and you can see such
[00:20:18] two decorative elements, and from photos we can
[00:20:21] identify that this is the highest part that rested on the roof,
[00:20:25] precisely and precisely not only the
[00:20:29] plaster has survived, but in this case, fragments of paint
[00:20:32] have also survived, where you can see that after several layers
[00:20:36] older, small red and blue elements are hidden,
[00:20:39] which we also see. Next to the Great Synagogue,
[00:20:42] archaeologists also discovered fragments of ritual baths
[00:20:46] (mikvahs). So in this case, we are now standing outside
[00:20:50] the synagogue boundaries, we also discovered that
[00:20:53] passage between the synagogue and the bathhouse building
[00:20:57] in previous years and here you see these
[00:21:00] large large ceramic pipes, which
[00:21:04] are precisely such non-standard ones in the city
[00:21:07] of Vilnius, we immediately notice that they are considerably
[00:21:10] larger in their size and we see how
[00:21:13] the foundations of that kindergarten, these blocks
[00:21:17] destroy them, so undoubtedly. this means
[00:21:20] that they are older than the kindergarten, that is, early
[00:21:23] 20th century most likely
[00:21:26] and then when we started cleaning them, we saw
[00:21:29] that they have manufacturer's marks, here it is also very
[00:21:33] clearly visible against the sun, simply manufacturer's
[00:21:36] marks, those manufacturer's marks are English,
[00:21:40] in this case it's good that we investigated the late 19th and early 20th
[00:21:43] century site, we identified them by those marks as being
[00:21:47] two different factories, which in Scotland, so it means
[00:21:51] it's an import from Scotland, based on that
[00:21:54] we determined the period during which those pipes could have been
[00:21:57] laid, because one of those factories closed
[00:21:59] in 1904, so it means that
[00:22:03] after that in the very early 20th century
[00:22:06] very large renovation works of the entire quarter took place.
[00:22:09] In the early 20th century, the main facade of the Great Synagogue
[00:22:13] of Vilnius, facing Jewish Street, was blocked by a new
[00:22:16] building, the library. The Strašiūnas library, this is the very
[00:22:20] latest, a building from the first half of the 20th
[00:22:23] century, architect Koroyedovas
[00:22:26] designed that building, opposite the synagogue,
[00:22:29] in the initial construction stage, earlier
[00:22:33] there were commercial
[00:22:35] shops, a row of commercial shops,
[00:22:39] simply a single-story building, many images
[00:22:42] have survived for us precisely with the Strašiūnas
[00:22:46] library photos and those portals.
[00:22:49] named Strašūno because he donated a large
[00:22:52] collection of books, so it was two stories
[00:22:56] high and quite heavily obstructed
[00:23:00] the synagogue's structure, the synagogue building
[00:23:03] itself. Archaeological excavations also reveal
[00:23:06] about the life of Vilnius townspeople that took place even before
[00:23:10] the establishment of the Jewish quarter and the construction of the Great Synagogue.
[00:23:14] We know that a wooden synagogue should have stood in this place in the
[00:23:17] 16th century, but we don't know what the surroundings looked like.
[00:23:20] Here was a quarter of artisans around, well, that same
[00:23:24] Stiklių street and all that, it corresponds to that
[00:23:27] period, precisely, that also in the 16th century economic activity
[00:23:31] was already taking place here, it was not completely that the synagogue stood in an empty
[00:23:34] place, we have a very nice cross-section, it very nicely
[00:23:38] reflects to us precisely all those periods, with what
[00:23:42] this place precisely encountered, so for example up to this place are
[00:23:45] disturbances, which are related precisely to the demolition
[00:23:48] of the synagogue during the kindergarten construction e and
[00:23:52] precisely during that period further we have
[00:23:55] in this place such a cement base, so that cement base
[00:23:58] is precisely in the place where the tiles have survived, so those tiles
[00:24:02] are precisely on that cement base, so here we have that cement base, which
[00:24:06] are tiles, which most likely are related to the 18th century
[00:24:09] with the construction of the women's section, then we have
[00:24:13] a layer related to the construction of the synagogue from the 18th
[00:24:16] century and under that layer we have an even
[00:24:20] older layer, which is dated to the late 16th century
[00:24:23] and 17th century, here you see precisely now investigated
[00:24:26] utility pits, which precisely reflect the city life of that
[00:24:30] period, which are already simply used as
[00:24:33] waste pits, we also found most likely even earlier
[00:24:37] wooden building remains, such, and also
[00:24:40] it shows us how this place was used even
[00:24:44] before the synagogue, but at the same time it also shows that there was a lively city
[00:24:48] life precisely in this place. so all the time even before precisely building
[00:24:52] that brick part. One of the
[00:24:55] last archaeological discoveries of this year is
[00:24:59] the unearthed stone-built cellars. The last
[00:25:02] work, probably this year, is the cleaning of this
[00:25:06] cellar. This the building stood outside the Jewish Quarter
[00:25:09] and it, because
[00:25:12] of its unique architecture, which stands out
[00:25:16] from other buildings, it was
[00:25:19] quite large, it also had an inner courtyard, but in this case, this
[00:25:23] particular part, we didn't know that there
[00:25:26] was a basement, having found a basement here, we are now trying to clean it up
[00:25:30] as much as possible, as you can see, it is also quite
[00:25:33] deep, and its purpose remains
[00:25:35] unclear for now, but what is interesting about the building
[00:25:39] itself, as I mentioned, because of its architecture, because of its uniqueness,
[00:25:42] it was called Gaon's House
[00:25:45] from around the beginning of the 19th century, most likely because
[00:25:49] of its shape and such
[00:25:52] uniqueness , but whether Gaon really lived
[00:25:56] here, we don't know. It is known from
[00:25:59] the census that Gaon lived in
[00:26:03] the adjacent building next to the Jewish Quarter, which was rented out
[00:26:07] to the Jewish community, and many poor people lived there, and in that same building,
[00:26:10] the Vilna Gaon also
[00:26:13] lived, so most likely at least in a part of this
[00:26:16] building, because as I mentioned, it was a larger one
[00:26:20] and backed onto the building behind you,
[00:26:23] so he lived there, and
[00:26:26] we have now excavated at least part of that building.
[00:26:29] So here there is not just one basement,
[00:26:33] we still see another passage to another basement, there are like
[00:26:37] little doors with preserved hinges, and that building
[00:26:40] extends all the way to Jewish Street. The Jewish
[00:26:43] Quarter and the Great Synagogue of Vilnius were destroyed during
[00:26:46] the Second World War. This is the Jewish Quarter, which is now
[00:26:50] difficult to call that, because it was demolished
[00:26:54] after the war and essentially destroyed, it was the most
[00:26:57] difficult period for the entire Jewish
[00:27:00] community due to the Holocaust. In 1954,
[00:27:04] I think, almost
[00:27:07] the entire quarter was demolished to build these residential apartment
[00:27:11] buildings from the Stalinist era. According to the new
[00:27:15] plans for Vilnius, it was decided to level it to
[00:27:18] the ground when they demolished it, because
[00:27:20] the synagogue was two meters below ground level, the floors were, so it was simply
[00:27:24] dumped into that two-meter
[00:27:27] pit, yes, the so-called pit, into the
[00:27:30] interior of that synagogue, and that's why many of the finds
[00:27:34] that archaeologists are now finding are simply in the form of rubble
[00:27:38] piled up underground and
[00:27:41] leveled, and of course, around 1964,
[00:27:44] I think, a kindergarten was built there. The fragments of the Great Synagogue
[00:27:47] of Vilnius excavated by archaeologists can be seen
[00:27:51] today as if in a hollow, almost two meters
[00:27:54] deep. Due to historical prohibitions, when Jewish
[00:27:57] houses of worship were not allowed to be built taller than Catholic
[00:28:01] churches, the spaces of synagogues
[00:28:03] were deepened. In 2004, we found
[00:28:07] the remains of the former street pavement, and we
[00:28:10] now know that it was about 1.60m to 1.80m below
[00:28:14] street level, so in essence, that preserved it,
[00:28:17] because if it had been higher,
[00:28:21] similar to the street pavement or anything else, then nothing would have remained
[00:28:25] of those kindergartens, we would have had those fragments, but they would only be
[00:28:28] in undeveloped areas, so in this case, I say we have everything
[00:28:31] preserved and
[00:28:33] below ground. The research on the Great Synagogue of Vilnius took about 15
[00:28:37] years. It will continue. Now preparations are underway
[00:28:40] for the next stage. Efforts will be made to preserve and exhibit
[00:28:44] the authentic archaeological heritage, but to reveal
[00:28:47] the former urban structure of the Great Synagogue,
[00:28:51] to give meaning to historical memory is planned with modern
[00:28:54] architectural means. We invited
[00:28:58] architect Massimiliano Fuksas to be
[00:29:02] "He is a well-known architect
[00:29:05] in the world, he is of Lithuanian origin, he is
[00:29:09] essentially Lithuanian, he has a passport,
[00:29:13] born in Kaunas and lives
[00:29:16] in Italy and has a studio, so the
[00:29:20] architects of that studio essentially
[00:29:23] work on that, the very first project was
[00:29:27] pro bono, because I have known Massimiliano Fuksas for a long time,
[00:29:30] and he did" the first pro bono project, then
[00:29:34] well, but his project is like a drawing
[00:29:37] and from it, a
[00:29:40] project needs to be made, but
[00:29:45] is already formed,
[00:29:47] now to restore or to have plans
[00:29:51] to restore all that Shul, well, it's practically
[00:29:54] impossible, that's why we're focusing on
[00:29:58] the Great Synagogue, and we also don't want to rebuild that
[00:30:01] Great Synagogue. because today
[00:30:04] we don't have such a need for that
[00:30:07] synagogue to be restored as a synagogue, a replica
[00:30:11] of a synagogue should exist, the history of the synagogue should exist,
[00:30:14] but it is our
[00:30:18] community's future center, our culture
[00:30:22] will not be forgotten, Yiddish
[00:30:26] and Hebrew will be taught there,
[00:30:28] and we have nothing left but memory.
[00:30:32] So that is our
[00:30:35] goal, to somehow perpetuate
[00:30:39] that memory, so that
[00:30:41] people can remember what
[00:30:45] was here, how it was, and what disappeared. The memory of
[00:30:48] the thriving Jewish Quarter and the Great Synagogue in Vilnius Old Town
[00:30:52] must be revived and remind us that it was one
[00:30:55] of the largest and most important religious and cultural centers
[00:30:58] in Eastern Europe.