List of Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations

The citizens of Lithuania have the second highest count of individuals per capita who have been recognised by Yad Vashem as the Lithuanian Righteous Among the Nations, for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II.

The search for the righteous is ongoing but it has become increasingly difficult to find survivors who can confirm the fact of rescue and tell their story.

The cross was first awarded in September 1992 and it was initiated by Vytautas Landsbergis, chairman of the Supreme Council – Reconstituent Seimas, and Emanuelis Zingeris, director of the Jewish Museum.

[3] A book based on these questionnaires (originals are kept at the Department of Special Collections and Archives of Kent State University) by Jonas Rimašauskas was published in 2008, almost 40 years after the author's death.

[21] Sofija Binkienė compiled the first more comprehensive book on Jewish rescuers in Lithuania, Ir be ginklo kariai (Soldiers Even Without Weapons), and managed to get it published in Vilnius in 1967.

[24] The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum was established in 1989 and began systematic study and collection of information about the rescuers and the rescued.

[31] In June 2018, a monument to Jan Zwartendijk (about 2,000 LED rods connected into a 7-metre (23 ft) diameter spiral) was unveiled on Laisvės alėja, Kaunas by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

[34] Architect Tauras Budzys started a private initiative to affix memorial medallions to the tombstones of the righteous among the nations.

They depict two hands that symbolize help, letters A✝A and RIP (short for amžiną atilsį and rest in peace), and inscription "Righteous Among the Nations" in Lithuanian, English, and Yiddish.