An electric power substation was built in the 1960s during the Soviet era using tombstones from a Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania. City officials now want to tear it down and return the tombstones to Lithuania's Jewish community. They're also investigating whether there are other examples of Jewish tombstones being used as building material during the Soviet occupation, when the communist authorities paid little attention to religious symbols.
Giedrius Sakalauskas, a private citizen, noticed that a local power substation was built with granite blocks instead of bricks that are usually used. This month he examined the building more carefully, and he made a chilling discovery: Dozens of stones had inscriptions in Hebrew or Yiddish. He told The Associated Press that he realized that Jewish tombstones had been used. He remembered that across the street there used to be a Jewish cemetery that was demolished in the 1960s when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union.
Sakalauskas posted pictures of his discovery on social media, setting off an emotional discussion about a dark chapter in Lithuania's history that didn't end when a Nazi occupation was replaced by a Soviet one in 1944. The few surviving Jews who had escaped Hitler were now under the rule of Josef Stalin, who also disliked Jews.
Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius told the AP he's already asked the utility companies that own the substation, which feeds electricity to thousands of homes, to find a way to move them to a "proper resting place."
In the 1990s, authorities removed steps leading up to the Tauro hill, one of the highest points in Vilnius, after finding out they were made with stones taken from a Jewish graveyard.
The mayor said two other cases are being investigated: the steps leading up to the Reformed Evangelical Church in Vilnius, which was turned into a movie theater by the communists, and a wall outside a high school in the city.
"This Soviet-era legacy is a disgrace for our city," Simasius told the AP. "Monuments must be respected. We are talking to the Jewish community to find a proper solution."
